Companies Team to Deliver NVIDIA Quadro® Graphics on New Sun Java Workstations Running the Solarisä Operating System

DENVER — SEG INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION — OCTOBER 12th, 2004 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) and NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) today announced that they have joined forces to deliver leading NVIDIA Quadro® graphics solutions on Sun Java Workstations running Solarisä, Windows or Linux operating systems. Through this alliance, Sun has bundled NVIDIA® technology with its recently announced Sun Javaä Workstations W1100z and W2100z, based on the AMD Opteronä processor with Direct Connect Architecture. Sun is committed to delivering NVIDIA technologies with future Sun products and the two companies are working together to tune and optimise the OpenGL implementation for Solaris on x86 and deliver an open, standards-based development environment.

With a single architecture, Sun Java Workstations support simultaneous 32-bit and 64-bit computing with no compromises in performance, allowing users to maintain their existing x86 infrastructure while still enabling a smooth migration to next-generation 64-bit operating systems and applications when required. Sun offers a comprehensive suite of NVIDIA solutions in its Sun Java Workstations, including:

NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 for Extreme 3D Performance
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000 for High-End 3D Performance
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1100 for Mid-Range 3D Price/Performance
NVIDIA Quadro FX 500 for Entry-Level 3D Value
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 280 for Professional 2D

“Sun Java Workstations, based on the AMD Opteron processor, offer the market outstanding flexibility, reliability, scalability, performance and OS leadership,” said Brian Healy, director of workstation product marketing at Sun Microsystems, Inc. “By partnering with NVIDIA, we can now deliver best-in-class graphics solutions that benefit our customers across multiple industries.”

The Sun Java Workstation with NVIDIA Quadro graphics technology provides customers a high performance, visualisation-class graphics solution that will run across multiple operating systems. By adopting the NVIDIA Quadro technology, Sun can deliver across the board 2D and 3D performance improvements, including higher bus bandwidth, increased memory bandwidth, higher rendering speeds and the ability to deploy large data sets.

Sun's long-standing presence in the workstation market, now coupled with optimisation of the Solaris OS for AMD Opteron systems and NVIDIA's graphics expertise, enables the two companies to drive new joint opportunities with a strong price/performance advantage.

Together, Sun and NVIDIA will target customers in graphics and compute intensive markets such as Oil & Gas, Life Sciences, Defence, CAD/CAM, EDA, Financial Services, Professional DCC (Digital Content Creation) and Software Engineering. By leveraging Sun's sales organisation and network of channel partners, NVIDIA now has greater access to the industry ecosystem needed to extend its reach with Sun solutions targeted at these market segments.

"NVIDIA and Sun are bringing to bear our combined expertise in industry leading workstation solutions" said Jeff Fisher, executive vice president of worldwide sales at NVIDIA. "The net effect is the delivery of outstanding performance and value to customers, especially those who benefit from 64-bit processing and the highest performance application-tuned graphics."

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision - "The Network Is The Computer(TM)" - has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com

About NVIDIA
NVIDIA Corporation is a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors. The Company's products enhance the end-user experience on consumer and professional computing devices. NVIDIA GPUs (graphics processing units), MCPs (media and communications processors), and WMPs (wireless media processors) have broad market reach and are incorporated into a variety of platforms, including consumer and enterprise PCs, notebooks, workstations, PDAs, mobile phones and video game consoles. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and employs more than 2,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the Company’s Web site at http://www.nvidia.co.uk