Following its Sunfire server hoop-la, Sun Microsystems Inc this week fleshes out its 64-bit UltraSparc workstation story, introducing the sub-$10,000 Ultra 1 box promised at last November’s roll-out (CI No 2,788), plus new uniprocessor and two- way Ultra 2 models. There are now 12 different Ultra 1 and 2 configurations available. Lopping off 32Mb memory and 1Gb disk from the basic $16,500 Ultra 1 Model 140 and claiming other economies of scale, Sun has created a $10,000 system with 32Mb memory, 1Gb disk, 17 screen and TurboGX graphics. Rated at 4.66 SPECint95 and 7.9 SPECfp95, this entry-level 143MHz UltraSparc 1 system will not put the low-end SparcStation 4 and 5 lines out of business anytime soon yet. Sun has added uniprocessor version of the two-way 200MHz Ultra 2 Model 2200 as the Model 1200. Rated at 7.67 SPECint95 and 11.1 SPECfp95 it is priced from $30,000 with 64Mb memory, 2Gb disk, Creator graphics and 20 screen. The two- way Model 2200 with the same configuration is priced from $37,500. Sun is still promising 200MHz ships this quarter. It is also adding a 167MHz uniprocessor Ultra 2 Model 1170, upgradable to a two-way Model 2170. The Ultra 2 Creator 1170 is rated at 6.20 SPECint95 and 9.27 SPECfp95, comes with 64Mb memory, 2Gb disk, 20 screen, Creator graphics and costs from $26,000. The two-way Model 2170 is rated at 6.39 SPECint95 and 11.8 SPECfp95 and costs from $28,500. Both are due next month. Meantime, Sun is already cutting tags on its high-end Creator 3D graphics and E series Ultra 1 models which support the UltraSparc Port Architecture bus, 100M-bit per second Fast Ethernet and Fast/Wide SCSI. Both Creator and Creator 3D boards provide 24-bit color at 1,280 by 1,024 resolution but the latter also provides double- buffering support for complex 3D graphics. The 167MHz Ultra 1 Creator 3D Model 170E with 64Mb memory, 2Gb disk, 20 screen and Creator graphics now costs $25,000, down from $28,000. Sun has also cut tags on a product it hasn’t even shipped yet. The Ultra 2 Model 2200 Creator 3D, with two 200MHz CPUs, 256Mb memory, two 2Gb drives, Creator 3D graphics and 20 color screen costs $52,500, down from an original target price of $60,000. A512Kb cache is available for the 167MHz UltraSparc I – 1Mb on the 200MHz version. Sun says it intends to continue to provide its 75MHz Super Sparc II and 150MHz HyperSparc-based SparcStation 20 for a while – the line runs SunOS and Solaris applications which have not yet been converted to run on the Solaris 2.5-only UltraSparcs – but asserts it will not slash prices any further on the line.