Sun to replace PCs at Nomura

Sun Microsystems (SUNW) said today that Nomura International will replace about 1,000 PCs with Sun's network computers.

Japan-based Nomura, one of the largest international investment banks in the world, will replace personal computers with 1,100 Sun JavaStations, according to Sun and Nomura.

The JavaStation network computer is a desktop computer with no hard drive, no slots for add-in cards, no floppy drive, and no CD-ROM drive. The basic configuration is a microSPARC II chip, up to 64MB of memory, networking capability, and a 14- or 17-inch color monitor.

The announcement comes after a restructuring of Nomura's computer that calls for the introduction of Java-based graphical interfaces to desktop computers.

Nomura plans to deploy the JavaStation network computers over the next two years. Solaris-based servers are also being deployed, the investment bank said. Sun servers will support computer-intensive applications, database engines, file distribution, and development work.

"JavaStations are cheaper to operate than PCs," said Geoff Doubleday, Managing Director of Nomura International's Information Systems Division in a written statement. "Also, by writing our applications in Java, we get huge portability benefits because the apps will run on any platform we choose," he added.