Introduction to 10th Anniversary Volume

by Jim Mitchell,
Sun Fellow & VP, Sun Microsystems Laboratories

As this compendium of Sun Labs' first ten years is being assembled, I am the fortunate inheritor of the Labs created by my predecessors: Wayne Rosing, Bert Sutherland, and Greg Papadopoulos. Each one of them has shoes that are very hard to fill, and trying to be as good as all of them is an impossible task. Happily, I don't have to: In Sun Labs we have a collection of some of the most talented, accomplished research scientists and staff on the planet. They have created the ideas and technologies that have built our reputation and that are so well exemplified by this collection of papers.

This compendium, of course, is just a rather small sample of all the innovation that has occurred here in the Labs' first ten years. We hope the sample gives the flavor of Sun Labs, and if you like the sampler, visit our website, http://research.sun.com/techrep/index.html for additional contributions from Labs researchers over our first ten years.

However, we don't just come up with great ideas. And we don't just build technologies and systems based on those ideas. We put great effort into turning research results into value for Sun. Indeed, this has been one of the hallmarks of Sun Microsystems Laboratories since our birth in 1991.

Many Labs researchers have moved with their creations to Sun product organizations to help turn the projects into products or tools for Sun to sell or use in our business. This culture of technology transfer has worked very well, and we are very proud of our alumni who have gone on to important positions in other parts of Sun where they have become an integral part of Sun's ongoing businesses. In a very real sense, Sun Labs alumni have significantly impacted and influenced the company as much by their presence as by the development of great technologies like the Java(TM) Programming Language, the SPARC(TM) V9 architecture, etc.

This book is a monument to all the people of Sun Labs who have not only made it a vibrant place to conceive and incubate ideas, but who have been a great source of talent for our parent company. They have established the cultural foundation and the standards of quality that, I am sure, will make the next 10 years of accomplishments even better than the first.

A SAD NOTE: As we were preparing this 10th Anniversary volume, the tragic events that led to the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York claimed one of our own, Phil Rosenzweig. Phil was an enthusiastic, inspiring director in our Burlington, Massachusetts lab, and a warm and caring mentor to his group as well as a dedicated researcher. He will be long remembered by his colleagues and friends. One of his contributions, "The Java Reliable Multicast Service: A Reliable Multicast Library," graces these pages. To him and to all the victims of the terrible events of September 11, 2001, we dedicate this collection.