The first commercially
available SPARC computer was launched in 1987. What does the acronym "SPARC"
stand for?
(a) - Sunos Pipeline Accelerated Risc Computer?
(b)
- SBus Processor ARChitecture?
(c) - Sun's Plan to Accelerate Risc
Chips?
(d) - Sun Proprietary ARChitecture?
(e) - none of the
above?
Sun's skills at designing processor chips, memory caches and network
interfaces are legendary and have been an important factor contributing to Sun's
performance lead over competing processor platforms. Where is Sun's main
wafer fab (chip factory) for SPARC technology located?
(a) - Texas?
(c)
- Cyprus?
(d) - California?
(e) - Java?
(f) - Israel?
(g)
- None of the above?
Sun's CEO, Scott McNealy has been a creative source of sound bites for
the media over the years. When referring to the "Evil Empire"
did he mean...
(a) - the Soviet Union?
(b) - IBM?
(c)
- the British Empire?
(d) - Red Hat Linux?
(e) - Iraq?
(f)
- Microsoft?
(g) - Fujitsu?
Sun has had an impressive track record of promoting innovation and
inventing new computer technology, especially in its younger more creative
days. Which of the following statements is true?
(a) - Sun
invented the microprocessor.
(b) - Sun invented Unix.
(c) -
the first C compiler was written on a Sun-1 workstation.
(d) - Sun was
the co-inventor of Ethernet (along with Xerox and DEC).
(e) - Sun
invented RAID.
(f) - Sun invented RISC.
(g) - all of the
above.
(h) - none of the above.
Sun has coined many phrases and slogans which have been used from
time in its marketing. Which of the following is not a genuine Sun
marketing slogan?
(a) - the network is the computer?
(b) -
the dot in dot con?
(c) - may the iForce be with you?
(d) -
SPARC vinquat ubique?
(e) - the soul of the machine?
(f) - to
infinity and beyond?
According to statistics regularly reported in Sun's own press
releases, Sun is the world's most successful server company. Which of the
following statements is true?
(a) - Sun has a bigger share of the
SPARC market than IBM, HP and Dell combined.
(b) - Sun is the biggest
supplier (quarterly unit shipments) of Unix servers (excluding Linux and non
SPARC Unix).
(c) - Sun is the #1 company in the Solaris server market.
(d)
- Sun makes servers.
(e) - Sun has sold more Oracle servers than DEC,
Data General and Prime combined.
In the dotcom boom days, Sun's stock SUNW was highly valued and much
sought after. What is the best advice for someone who bought Sun shares at
$60 and still owns them?
(a) - hold onto them in the medium term
and hope they will rise in value.
(b) - wallpaper your office.
(c)
- don't give up the day job.
(d) - wait for IBM, Fujitsu or Red Hat to
make an attractive offer.
(e) - add them to your collection of
Confederate dollars and advertise them on eBay.
Sun's vision and the clarity of its roadmaps have helped steer the
company and its users onto a single unitary software platform which has scaled
succesfully for 20 years. Now it's more important than ever for users to
understand Sun's OS strategy. Which of the following do you think best sums
it up?
(a) - Sun is committed to SPARC and Solaris as its main
platform.
(b) - Sun is committed to AMD's Opteron and Solaris as its
main platform.
(c) - Sun is committed to AMD's Opteron as its Linux
platform.
(d) - Sun does not think Linux is an OS for the datacenter.
(e)
- Sun will rebrand AMD's Opteron as the SPARC VIII - and put a big warning label
on the server which says "opening the box and peeking at the processor
invalidates the warranty".
Here are the Correct Answers
Unfortunately due to my
imminent vacation (I work in Europe where we have 185 days off - not counting
Christmas and public holidays) and I haven't had time to research the correct
answers. But here's a temporary fix until I get back and publish them.
If
you are an Employee of Sun Microsystems...
Congratulations!
Everything you ticked was right. Congratulate yourself on a job well done. But
how come you've got the time to do this quiz? We're all counting on you to save
the future of computing, stop global warming and reduce taxes. Get back to work
now! Shame on you for slacking off.
If you are an iForce Partner,
or just a Lowly Sun VAR...
Sorry, this quiz was just another one
of those endless thankless tasks which are designed to make your life more
difficult. And the correct answers will not count to your self
certification under Sun's new quiz partner competence program. You probably got
more of the answers right than the guys above. But don't throw your answers
away. You may need them.
If you are and End User or just someone
who likes doing quizzes...
Sorry, but until I publish the real
answers, which I may not even get round to unless there is sufficient demand,
you have 4 ways to currently check your score.
1) - phone Sun technical
support.
2) - phone IBM technical support. They'll probably have better
answers than (1)
3) - phone your Sun VAR. If there are any left.
4)
- start your own local Sun Trivia Quiz User Group. But remember to put the
proper legal disclaimers on your home page - saying it's got nothing to do with
Sun. |
| more articles about -
Sun, SPARC & Solaris - the View from the Hill series etc | |
