TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Sun Unveils Workstations: The Ultra 1 and Ultra 2 systems, which incorporate the new UltraSparc microprocessor, represent an attempt by Sun Microsystems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., to recapture its dominant position in high-end personal computers. The 64-bit chip incorporates multimedia and communications functions, usually added separately. Sun pioneered the workstation, a powerful PC commonly used by scientists and engineers, but industry observers believe its technology fell behind that of Hewlett-Packard Co. and Silicon Graphics Inc. The new workstations bring Sun to those companies’ level or above it, analysts said. But HP and Silicon Graphics are working on next-generation chips. Sun shares, trading on Nasdaq, lost $3.125, closing at $79.875.