Sun Announces Third Canadian SunSITE Initiative

Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc.						NATIONAL Public Relations 		
Susan Stuart									  Hugh Black/Sheri Fox	  			 
905-415-7903								       416-586-0180		  			
susan@canada.sun.com 							  hblack@toronto.nationalpr.com
	  										sfox@toronto.nationalpr.com
	  			
University of Alberta
Michael Byrne
780-492-4767
Michael.Byrne@ualberta.ca

SUN MICROSYSTEMS AWARDS THIRD CANADIAN SUN SITE INITIATIVE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Digital Collections provides online access to museum collections and library resources

MARKHAM, ON - December 8, 1998 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. is pleased to announce the creation of the third Sun(TM) Software, Information and Technology Exchange (Sun SITE(TM)) location in Canada. The University of Alberta's Sun SITE initiative, called Digital Collections, will provide students, faculty and the general population with online access to libraries across Alberta and millions of object-based collection resources via the Internet. The Digital Collections Sun SITE project promises to enhance research efforts and foster increased interest in cultural and natural history.

Books, works of art, zoological specimens, spatial data, an Ethiopian Volute and a Guatemalan huipile are just several of the resources that will be available for research and review on the University of Alberta's Sun SITE location found at http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/.

"We are extremely excited about being the next Sun SITE program and the incredible teaching and learning opportunities the site will afford students, faculty and the public at large," says Michael Byrne, Director of Computing and Network Services at the University of Alberta. "Sun's contribution means the University's resources can be shared across the Internet with a broad audience. The combination of advanced technology and research tools is certain to fuel collaboration and thought in our academic community."

Two four-processor Sun Enterprise(TM) 450 servers, donated by Sun Microsystems, will serve as the central repository for the Digital Collections Sun SITE initiative. The site comprises a Virtual Museum and digital library projects in the areas of spatial data and high speed document delivery.

The Virtual Museum will offer the academic community and general public unprecedented access to many of the University of Alberta's 17 million artifacts, specimens, and works of art. Visitors to the Virtual Museum will be offered virtual tours of the resources in their digital form.

The Relais Digital Document Delivery Initiative promises just-in-time resource sharing among the print collections at four Alberta universities. The project utilizes innovative document capture, management and workflow controls. Finally, the Spatial Data section of Digital Collections will offer researchers easy online access to geo-spatial data files and other linkable data resources. The Sun SITE initiative will be a valuable tool for professors, students, researchers and the general public alike.

"Sun's own original workstation was born of a university graduate project more than 16 years ago, so we recognize the value of investing in world-class research and academic institutions like the University of Alberta," says Everett Anstey, president of Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc. "The Digital Collections site is a unique endeavor and one that truly captures the power of the Internet to provide people with access to resources they may never have otherwise been able to see and use."

To date, Sun has helped establish three Sun SITE locations in Canada. Queen's University became the first Canadian Sun SITE initiative in 1996 (http://www.sunsite.queensu.ca/), followed by the University of British Columbia's Living Mathematics Sun SITE project established earlier this year (http://www.sunsite.ubc.ca/).

Sun established the Sun SITE program in 1992 to help connect students to the Internet. Sun SITE locations act as a central repository for Sun software, technology, and cutting edge content for use by both the general public and academics as research and teaching tools. All Sun SITE locations are chosen by Sun for their reputation for academic excellence. More than 50 Sun SITE_ programs for universities in 40 countries have been established. Sun SITE programs provide users worldwide with free publicly accessible software and information (http://www.sun.com/sunsite/index.html).

Sun In Education

In addition to the Sun SITE program, Sun is a leading provider of open network computing solutions to colleges and universities around the world, powering academic, research and high performance computing systems, campus administration, library automation, digital libraries and student instruction systems. In recognition of the special needs of academic institutions, Sun offers a host of education programs including: free Solaris(TM) licenses for non-commercial use, free Java(TM) software for teaching, academic equipment grants and collaborative research. For additional information about Sun's in the education marketplace visit http://www.sun.com/edu/.

The University of Alberta in Edmonton is one of Canada's premier teaching and research institutions serving some 30,000 students with 6,000 faculty and staff.

Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems, Inc., is headquartered in Markham, Ontario, with branch offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. Sun products and services are also available through independent sales offices in St. John's, Saint John, Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, London, Toronto, Kingston, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, as well as through Authorized Resellers across Canada.

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 high quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $10 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com/.

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