Compaq Deskpro PCs with Intelligent Manageability Receive Official Certification for DMI Compliance; The Leader in Industry-standard Solutions Continues to Set the Pace.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 23, 1996--Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) today announced that all Compaq Deskpro PCs with Intelligent Manageability have received official certification from the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF) for Desktop Management Interface (DMI) compliance.

The DMI compliance joins the wealth of additional standards supported by Intelligent Manageability including Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), SelfMonitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.), and the VESA Extended Display Identification (EDID) and Display Data Channel (DDC). Customers can confidently purchase Compaq Deskpros with Intelligent Manageability knowing that it delivers manageability that works in the customer's strategic environment. The company was awarded certification at the DMTF-sponsored Fusion event, which took place recently in Portland.

"Compaq has been a long-time Steering Committee member of the DMTF and has continuously worked towards providing a total desktop management solution for its customers," said John T. Rose, senior vice president and general manager of Compaq's Commercial Desktop Division. "We have made a concerted effort to work within established industry standards or, when necessary, to drive breakthrough technology standards that later become widely adopted. This approach eases the integration, management and maintenance of our customer's networked PCs which saves them money," Rose said.

"For example, earlier this year, Compaq lead the development of an advanced hard drive diagnostics specification that enables hard drives to predict and alert customers to certain types of failures before they occur, thus preventing loss of critical data. These `IntelliSafe' hard drives benefit customers that own networks of desktop computers by greatly reducing unscheduled and costly computer downtime. This Compaq-driven technology is now an important and widespread industry standard adopted by the Small Form Factor Committee of ANSI and the ANSI X3T10 standards committee developing the AT-Attachment-3 Interface (ATA-3) specification," Rose noted.

Intelligent Manageability

Compaq Intelligent Manageability makes networked PCs and peripherals easier to inventory, troubleshoot, and protect through a high level of integrated asset, fault, and security management capabilities. In order to maximize the accessibility of these capabilities, Compaq launched its Desktop Management Solutions Partners Program. This initiative was launched in March 1995 with leading LAN management software companies to ensure that Compaq customers can easily manage Compaq PCs using their choice of tools from these leading LAN management vendors.

Compaq Intelligent Manageability, through a high level of integrated asset management, makes networked PCs and peripherals easier to inventory and monitor. AssetControl informs the network administrator of the hardware model, manufacturer, and serial number of the PC system, monitors, and hard drives, as well as the revision levels of the system board, system ROM, and drivers. With this comprehensive data in one single location, the network administrator can manage the PCs and peripherals on the network in a more timeefficient and cost-effective manner.

Intelligent Manageability also permits easier troubleshooting through a variety of fault management capabilities such as Compaq's IntelliSafe hard drives. In conjunction with Compaq Insight Manager, the IntelliSafe hard drive predicts and warns the end-user, as well as the network administrator, of impending hard drive failure. This warning enables preventive action to be taken to avoid data loss or downtime. (If under warranty, Compaq will replace a failing drive even though it has not yet failed.) Compaq also provides a proactive tape backup function, supported by leading backup solution vendors, that automatically backs up the drive as soon as an impending failure is detected. This further ensures that the user's important data is preserved and downtime is minimized.

In addition, Intelligent Manageability addresses the area of security management to provide protection of data and CPU. Features such as password protection and drive security measures control access to the information stored on the PC or the network. Physical protection of the PC, and its expensive components, is provided with provisions such as a cable lock.

Company Background

Compaq Computer Corporation is the world's largest supplier of personal computers, offering desktop PCs, portable PCs, servers and options. Compaq products are sold and supported in more than 100 countries throughout the world. Compaq also sells directly to customers through Compaq DirectPlus at 1-800-888-5858. Compaq provides 24-hour customer support and can be reached through the Compaq forums on America Online, CompuServe, Internet (http://www.compaq.com), and Prodigy, or by calling 1-800-345-1518.

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Compaq is a registered trademark of Compaq Computer Corporation, Registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

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Scott Collins

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