Sun Microsystems Hosts Annual Worldwide Education and Research Conference; Global Experts, NY Education Leaders, Join Scott McNealy to Discuss Best Pr

Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced the opening of its Annual Worldwide Education and Research Conference (WWERC) in New York, March 7-9, 2006. Building on its roots as a leading advocate of education and learning, Sun executives will share the stage with invited speakers including Joel Klein, Chancellor of New York City Schools, Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor of City University of New York (CUNY), Dr. Djibril Diallo, Director United Nations New York Office of Sport for Peace and Development, James Burke of PBS, TV show host and science historian, among others, to discuss the emerging and leading edge technologies being used in K-12 and higher education to open doors and increase access to quality education.

"Sun has been hosting the WWERC for more than 20 years in order to bring together education thought leaders to discuss the evolution of education and the role technology plays in enhancing global learning, teaching and research," said Kim Jones, vice president, Global Education & Research. "Together with Sun, world leaders in education and technology will discuss the many ways that IT skills development can enhance employee readiness, help create communities and extend access to resources."

Sun provides technology resources and training classes to students worldwide, creating strong educational ties within a community to aid the enrichment of the individuals around the globe. Through these communities Sun and its partners deliver increased access to education and enhanced IT skills development. Significant progress has been made on this front as shown by, Sun's formation of the non-profit Global and Education Learning Community (GELC), aimed to improve global education by empowering teachers, students and parents with self-paced, web based, free and open content (curriculum resources, assessment) combined with best practices for advancing student achievement world wide.

Sun Milestones in Global IT Skills Development and Education

Sun Grid Grants for Education -- Sun is awarding ten institutions the Sun Grid Education Grant for 100,000 hours of central processing units (CPUs) each on the Sun Grid, continuing its promise to provide 1 million CPU hours to universities. First to benefit from the Sun Grid Education Grant program is Princeton University, which received the grant in December 2005. The donation of 100,000 CPU hours on Sun Grid -- using the Solaris(TM) 10 Operating System (OS) -- has enabled Princeton to conduct its cutting-edge astrophysics research at resolutions that previously were not possible due to the costs of building the necessary computing power onsite. Today, Sun has extended the Sun Grid Education Grant to deserving research efforts at additional institutions including: Binghamton University, State University of New York; Clemson University; Rutgers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); The State University of New Jersey; Southeastern Universities Research Association; University of California, Santa Cruz; University of Minnesota, Duluth; and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sun Grid helps customers and partners derive immediate benefits from an open, grid-based computing infrastructure on a pay-per-use utility basis that enables them to accelerate innovation, speed time to results, and deploy technical applications without having to invest in expensive IT infrastructure.

Global Education and Learning Community (GELC) Names and Executive Director -- Sun broke new ground in free and open-source computing in the creation of this non profit which aims to meet the needs of students by sharing best practices globally. The group named an executive director at the conference, Dr. Barbara "Bobbi" Kurshan, formerly President of Educorp Consultants Corporation, and co-CEO of Core Learning Group, Private Equity Fund. The director will lead an advisory board with representatives from nearly every continent to extend the vision for this group. The GELC Executive Director directs all activities of the GELC, including managing the various working groups, monitoring technical developments, overseeing the education community process, managing the creation of GELC specifications and representing the GELC to external organizations.

Solaris 10 University Challenge -- Announced during EduCause 2005, Sun extended an opportunity for student developers and others at universities to develop projects based on Solaris 10, the most advanced operating system on the planet, and OpenSolaris(TM), Sun's open source project for Solaris. The winner will receive cash and Sun technology and their university will receive a retail value credit up to $100,000 towards the purchase of Sun technology. Submissions are due by June 10, 2006. For eligibility requirements and more information, please visit: http://www.sun.com/solaris10universitychallenge.

Featured Sun Speakers include:

-- Scott McNealy, Chairman and CEO

-- John Fowler, Executive Vice President, Network Systems Group

-- John Gage, Chief Researcher and Director of the Science Office

-- James Gosling, Vice President and Sun Fellow

-- Kim Jones, Vice President of Global Education and Research

-- Randy Kerns, Vice President, Data Management Group

-- Greg Papadopoulos, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology

Officer

-- Ingrid Van Den Hoogen, Senior Vice President, Brand, Global

Communications and Marketing

-- David W. Yen, Executive Vice President, Scalable Systems Group

Additional Featured Speakers:

-- Curtiss Barnes, Senior Director Product Strategy -- Education and

Research, Oracle

-- James Burke, Science Historian, Author and TV Host

-- Dr. Robert A. Cecil, Ph.D.

-- Dr. Djibril Diallo, Director United Nations New York Office of Sport

for Peace and Development

-- Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor, City University of New York

-- Joel I. Klein, Chancellor, New York City Department of Education

-- Hede Nonaka, Vice President Marketing Division, Ricoh U.S./Ricoh

Corporation

-- David Swartz, Vice President and CIO, The George Washington University

-- Dr. Arthur Toga, Professor of Neurology, UCLA

-- Jimmy Wales, Founder and President, Wikimedia Foundation

For more information, please visit: http://events-at-sun.com/wwerc2006/

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

A singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer"(TM) -- guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world's most important markets. Sun's philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at sun.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Melissa Pereira

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

+1-408-884-4980

melissa.pereira@sun.com

Michaela Wilkinson

Bite Communications for Sun

+1-415-365-0376

michaela.wilkinson@bitepr.com

allpress@sun.com

+1-650-786-7737

NOTE: Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, StarOffice, Sun Fire, Sun Ray, Java and The Network is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and in other countries.

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