High productivity programming tools, virtual workspaces, massively scalable online game server, new web programming environments, and other projects discussed; community of research partners can participate at www.research.sun.com

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 10 -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. today opened the doors of Sun Labs for its annual open house. Founded in 1991, Sun Microsystems Laboratories is an applied research facility and an integral part of Sun's overall research and development program. Many of Sun Labs innovative technologies are available as open-source software and hardware, welcoming communities of research partners to participate in the development of next-generation technologies. To see video presentations and download the latest open source code from Sun Labs, visit http://www.research.sun.com.

Guests at the Open House attended talks and demos given by 44 of Sun's leading research scientists, Sun Fellows and Distinguished Engineers. Highlights of the day included the project Sun Small Programmable Object Technology (SPOT) hands-on lab, and technology demos which included the Sun Labs Lively Kernel project, Project Wonderland, Project Aura, and OpenSPARC, and provided a behind-the-scenes view of Sun's most innovative research.

"Sun Labs has delivered measurable and results-oriented innovation through its history and by increasingly adding collaboration to our innovation, we're taking the our research projects even further," said Bob Sproull, director of Sun Labs and a Sun Fellow. "Our open sourced prototypes are effectively building communities of research partners, inviting participation and disruptive thinking from developers outside of Sun Labs and the broader Sun community."

Research projects displayed at the 2008 Sun Labs Open House include:

• Project Fortress -- Led by the Sun Labs Programming Language Research Group, Fortress is a new programming language designed for high-performance computing (HPC) designed to deliver high programmer productivity. Project Fortress Version 1.0 was released March 31, 2008, as open source and is available at http://projectfortress.sun.com/Projects/Community/.
  
  
• Project Darkstar -- A Java technology-based software infrastructure to simplify the development and operation of massively scalable online games, virtual worlds, and social networking applications. Project Darkstar is open source and is available at http://www.projectdarkstar.com/.
  
  
• Project Sun SPOT -- An experimental platform for developing wireless sensor, robotics and swarm intelligence applications entirely in Java technology. The entire system, including hardware, operating system Java Virtual Machine, drivers and applications is available as Open Source on Java.net. Sun SPOT Developer Kit available at http://www.sunspotworld.com/.
  
  
• Project Wonderland -- A toolkit for building 3D virtual worlds, powered by Project Darkstar, is the basis for research into collaborative work and education environments. More information at https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/.
  
  
• Project Caroline -- Ongoing research into technologies for rapid and efficient development and delivery of dynamically scalable Internet-based services. Learn more at https://www.projectcaroline.net/main/.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer" -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.

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Source: About Sun Microsystems, Inc.