Sun to outline licensing strategy

Sun Microsystems (SUNW) will detail a strategy for expanding into new markets through licensing hardware designs, processors, and related technology at a meeting of some 200 of its most important manufacturing partners tomorrow.

A number of Sun executives, including Scott McNealy, Sun's chairman and CEO, will be on hand at the event in San Francisco to offer its OEM customers a look at companies who are using Sun technology in novel fashion. Home Depot, for instance, will talk about its plans to incorporate Java-based thin clients into point-of-sales systems at its hardware stores.

Sun says the new push into component and technology licensing will help manufacturing partners bring products to market more quickly. To that end, executives are expected to address how recent acquisitions of Diba and Chorus Systems will play into Sun's push into the market for consumer electronics and networking equipment. Diba specializes in designing hardware for "information appliances" such as Internet set-top boxes, while Chorus is best known for operating systems for telecommunications products.

Sun will also address development of its line of UltraSparc and Java processors and the use of the different "flavors" of Java by companies for connecting disparate computing systems together.