SCIENCE

HOUSTON, TX -- Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) today introduced major enhancements to its Tru64 UNIX enterprise operating system and announced that its high-end AlphaServer GS Series systems have begun shipping with the industry's first 1 GHz, 64-bit processor. With new Tru64 UNIX capabilities, Compaq continues to enhance its operating environment, adding powerful workload management, increasing transaction availability with support for on-line add-and-replacement of processors, lowering the entry cost of proven clusters technology by supporting industry-standard cluster interconnects, and becoming the first company to offer customers the ability to mix 64-bit CPU speeds within a single system. Support for mixing processor speeds in a single system provides customers with both investment protection and an easy and less expensive upgrade path as they add more powerful CPUs to existing systems. In addition to announcing that its AlphaServer GS Series systems have begun shipping with the 1 GHz, 64-bit Alpha processor, Compaq also said that its low-end AlphaServer DS Series systems would now be available with an 833 MHz, 64-bit Alpha processor. The AlphaServer GS Series systems support Tru64 UNIX and/or the company's OpenVMS operating system. The AlphaServer DS Series systems also support Linux and a Linux ADK (Advanced Developers Kit) is available for the GS Series systems. "With our announcements today, Compaq has reinforced its leadership in providing high-performance, high-availability solutions to meet the data- intensive computing needs of our customers in fields ranging from e-business to telecommunications to high-performance technical computing," said Rich Marcello, vice president and general manager of Compaq's High Performance Systems Division. "At the same time, we are building on our growing momentum in the enterprise UNIX marketplace where we have seen revenues increase for eight consecutive quarters," said Marcello. In addition, leveraging its position as Oracle's lead development partner for Oracle9i Real Applications Clusters (RAC), Compaq also introduced new lower-cost certified Tru64 UNIX-based AlphaServer configurations and an industry-unique "9 Days Program," through which Compaq provides customers with a commitment to a running configuration within nine days of receipt of order. The enhancements to Compaq's Tru64 UNIX operating environment include: -- More flexible and powerful workload management capabilities for system managers, including Aurema's ARMTech technology that enables dynamic allocation of resources. Compaq's Tru64 UNIX resource management software enables system managers to meet service level agreements with in-house and external clients, even with unpredictable workloads and ever-changing resources. -- The ability to mix 64-bit CPU speeds in AlphaServer GS Series systems and within system partitions. Compaq is the first server vendor to offer this capability that allows system administrators to make optimal price/performance decisions in adding computing resources over time -- flexibility that translates into increased investment protection. This capability also applies to AlphaServer systems running OpenVMS. -- Support that allows online add and replacement (OLAR) of CPUs in the AlphaServer GS Series systems without having to interrupt applications and data transactions. -- Support for the industry-standard LAN-based cluster interconnect. This will reduce the entry price for clustered Tru64 UNIX systems, dramatically expanding the number of clients who are ready to adopt Tru64 UNIX clusters for their well-documented manageability and availability features. -- Extended Internet capabilities including Internet Express V5.6 (formerly Open Source Internet Solutions -- OSIS), a collection of open source and commercial software that provides basic infrastructure solutions. In addition, iPlanet Directory Server is now included in Tru64 UNIX, extending directory services to 200,000 users. AlphaServer Performance Upgrade The 1 GHz Alpha processor is available now with all AlphaServer GS Series models, the eight-processor GS80, the 16-way GS160 and reportedly the industry's most powerful system, the GS320, which can support up to 32 processors. "Today's announcement that we have begun shipping AlphaServer systems with the industry's first 1 GHz, 64-bit processor, underscores the performance leadership Compaq has had for 10 years in 64-bit computing," added Marcello. "This leadership will continue next year as we introduce a new family of AlphaServer systems running on our next generation EV7 Alpha processor and in the future as Alpha microprocessor and compiler technology is added to Intel's Itanium Processor family." The power of the new Alpha processor was demonstrated recently by the outstanding performance of an AlphaServer GS 320 system running Tru64 UNIX and using Oracle's new 9i database, as it established a world record in the industry standard TPC-C benchmark. The AlphaServer system, supported by a 22 TB StorageWorks subsystem, processed 230,533 transactions per minute at a cost of $44.62 per transaction. For further information visit www.compaq.com