The tie-up is part of Sun's long-term strategy to expand the market and increase volumes, company officials told newsmen in Bangalore.

The products to be offered through the partnership are the Ultra 5 and Ultra 10 workstations, the Enterprise 5, 10, 250 and 450 line of servers, said managing director of Sun Microsystems, Bhaskar Pramanik.

Viswanathan Anand to endorse NIIT
NIIT has chosen Viswanathan Anand, chess grandmaster & world No. 2, to be its global brand ambassador to further the brand NIIT as creator of mind champions through its computer education services.

Rajendra S Pawar, founder & managing director, NIIT, said, ``Anand is one of the greatest sportsperson India has ever produced with an enviable track record in the game of chess, world-wide." Pawar said NIIT offerings find a fine analogy in Viswanathan Anand and manifest a perfect match between Anand and NIIT.

HCL launches new version of Beanstalk
HCL Infosystems has joined the ongoing price wars in the Indian home personal computer segment by launching a cheaper version of its Beanstalk brand of home computer priced at Rs 45,990.

The 400 mhz Intel Celeron micro-proccessor-based Beanstalk is bundled with pre-installed software, CD titles and free support services, the company said in a release.

HCL has also bundled Dragon Point and Speak, a speech recognition package, worth Rs 6,500 at no extra cost, the statement added.

Beanstalk price includes one-year comprehensive on site maintenance and six months of free telesupport in the metros.

Bharti-Duraline to double capacity
Surge in demand for silicore-lined HDPE ducts has forced Bharti-Duraline, joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Duraline Corporation, US, to double its manufacturing capacity. According to a company release, the capacity expansion has been necessitated by the growing demand of these ducts from telecommunication companies and right-of-way owners for setting up high-capacity optic fibre optic networks. The expansion will raise the capacity of Bharti-Duraline's plant in Goa to 15,000 km of slicore- lined HDPE ducts from the present level of 7,500-km per year.

C&W sells Undersea cables business to Global Crossing
The British telecommunications group Cable and Wireless on Monday said that it had agreed to sell its Undersea cables division to Global Crossing of the US for 550 million pounds (840 million euros, $890 million). C&W said the sale of its Global Marine unit, which has a fleet of 13 ships and 21 Undersea vehicles, would allow the company to focus on its key internet and data transmission business.