NTU AND SUN MICROSYSTEMS ANNOUNCE A S$10 MILLION HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING RESEARCH COLLABORATION TO PROMOTE ENGINEERING AND LIFE SCIENCES RESEARCH

The tie-up advances R&D in NTU's Nanyang Centre for Supercomputing and Visualization (NCSV) and also includes the setting up of a new centre within NTU to take high performance computing and grid computing to new heights

Singapore - 20 December 2002 - Nanyang Technological University (NTU) today
announced a three-year S$10 million research collaboration with Sun
Microsystems (Sun) to advance research and development in the Nanyang
Centre for Supercomputing and Visualization (NCSV), which is affiliated to
NTU's School of Mechanical and Production Engineering. The memorandum of
understanding between NTU and Sun will be signed by Dr Cham Tao Soon,
President, Nanyang Technological University, and Naoyuki Nakanishi,
Director, Asia-Pacific for Education & Research, Sun Microsystems.

Significantly, the collaboration will promote research and development in
both engineering and the life sciences, areas which NTU has strong
capabilities in.

NCSV, a leading high performance computing hub, has extensive experience in
leveraging high performance computing to solve complex engineering
problems. The collaboration with Sun will continue to build on the
centre's strengths and will address the following research areas:

1)   Grid Computing
2)   MCAE/MCAD
3)   High Performance Computing
4)   Nanotechnology
5)   Life Sciences

NTU and Sun will also work on joint projects in the underlying technologies
that will support researchers who specialize in the above fields. These
technologies include, but are not limited to, parallel computing,
applications of high performance computing to solve life science
challenges, and data storage and management technologies.

New centre - the Asia Pacific Science and Technology Centre (APSTC)

Through the partnership, and with additional support from EDB, Sun
Microsystems' Asia Pacific Science and Technology Centre (APSTC) will be
established in NTU. The Centre, when open for business in January 2003,
will be staffed by three research scientists and six engineers. The key
role of APSTC is to develop expertise in high performance computing and
grid computing. APSTC will work with NCSV on specific projects. The staff
will also support all other research projects within the Asia-Pacific
region. NTU is indeed honored to be chosen by Sun to house the centre
within NTU.

The present tie-up also includes scholarships for research students. In
addition, Sun, through its extensive network of Centers of Excellence
around the world, will facilitate in other potential collaborations.

NTU set to be key high performance computing node in the region

Leveraging on its well-established engineering base and capabilities in the
life sciences, NTU is well positioned to play a key role in Singapore's
plan to be a biomedical hub. The new joint venture furthers NTU's
strategic goals.

"This collaboration with Sun Microsystems will establish NTU as the key
high performance computing centre in the region. Sun Microsystems has been
a leader in building large SMP servers that can accommodate up to 106 CPUs
and address up to half a terabytes of memory. In addition, the neat
feature of being able to have mixed speed CPUs within a single server is
definitely helpful in giving us better returns. We will also be working
with them on ensuring that grid computing is well integrated into a HPC
environment," said Professor Liew Kim Meow, Director of Nanyang Centre for
Supercomputing and Visualization.

"This partnership with NTU is testament to Sun's commitment to Singapore.
Sun has successfully delivered high performance computing solutions to
numerous leading academic institutions in the world. As advancements in
scientific research continue, research institutions will find themselves
addressing more and more complex problems that require powerful and
well-balanced computing infrastructures that Sun is renowned for," said
Naoyuki Nakanishi, Director, Asia-Pacific for Education & Research, Sun
Microsystems. "Our expertise in high performance computing, coupled with
the knowledge and talent of the researchers in NTU, will help further
position Singapore as a regional hub for HPC."

About Nanyang Technological University

Established on 1 July 1991, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has its
origin in the former Nanyang Technological Institute set up in 1981 with
the primary function of providing tertiary education and research in the
fields of engineering and technology. Long recognized as one of the
leading universities in the Asia-Pacific region, NTU has developed clear
fortes in several important branches of Engineering, Business, Accountancy,
Life Sciences, Communication & Information, and Education. The University
has 1,800 academic and research staff, and a student population exceeding
24,000 of which one-quarter are graduate students. For more information,
visit http://www.ntu.edu.sg.

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 or the Asia
South website at http://sg.sun.com.

         ###

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, and The Network Is The Computer are
trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United
States and other countries.

About NCSV

The Nanyang Center for Supercomputing and Visualization (NCSV) was established
in 2001 to provide high performance computing infrastructure and services to
researchers working in the areas of mechanical engineering, nano-technology,
grid-computing, and life sciences. NCSV handles sophisticated research
operations that require massive computing power. The center will soon be home to
the Asia Pacific Science and Technology Center (APSTC), where a nine-member
research team will work on joint Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB)
and Sun Microsystems? projects.

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Media Contacts:

Kelly Long
Sun Microsystems, Asia South    
Tel: (65) 6239-7092
Email : kelly.long@sun.com

Eileen Tan
Public Relations Office, NTU
Tel: (65) 6790-4886
E-mail: tanlh@ntu.edu.sg