Compaq Establishes Leadership Milestone in Universal Serial Bus Development; Availability of ASIC Design License and Open HCI Specification Will Spur Advancement of New I/O Standard.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 6, 1995--Aimed at furthering the development of Universal Serial Bus (USB), Compaq today announced it is openly licensing its ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) host controller design, which will enable motherboard and chipset companies to more quickly and easily develop components that support USB. The company also announced that the final Open Host Controller Interface (HCI) specification is expected to be released on November 22, 1995.

USB is an emerging industry standard that defines how a large number and wide variety of peripherals can be connected to a single physical connector at the back of the PC, ultimately replacing the multiple ports currently required. This is accomplished by having several peripherals "chained" to one another in a tree-like configuration. For example, the mouse, joystick and telephone can be connected to the keyboard, which is connected to the monitor, which is connected to the system.

OpenHCI, which was jointly developed by Compaq, Microsoft and National Semiconductor, defines the register level interface, enabling the USB controller to "talk" to the PC and its operating system.

Compaq is licensing its own host controller design, which includes the essential technical "blueprints" for logically and electrically integrating the USB controller into chipsets, so that chipset vendors will not have to create their own ASIC designs from "scratch". This will reduce the cost and time it would take companies to develop their own products, enabling USB-ready components to be available much more quickly and at lower costs. It should also help advance the implementation of USB within the PC industry while increasing the development of products that comply with industry-wide standards.

"As the leader in the PC industry, Compaq is seriously committed to establishing and promoting open standards that have real end-user benefits," said John T. Rose, Senior Vice President, Compaq Computer Corporation. "We believe that USB will greatly simplify and expand the I/O and communications capabilities of the PC, spurring the development of new PC-to-telephony connections and peripherals that are not available today. By offering our advanced engineering and R&D capabilities to many companies interested in accelerating this technology and allowing them to leverage our expertise at very little cost, Compaq extends its commitment to USB and open standards."

"Today's announcement confirms Compaq's role as a technology leader in the PC industry, and as a significant contributor to the advancement of USB," said Carl Stork, director or Hardware Programs at Microsoft. "Because this licensing program will allow many companies to substantially reduce their USB chipset development time and costs, Compaq is acting as the catalyst for change within the industry."

"USB's powerful combination of performance and cabling simplicity will create a whole new market for innovative PC peripherals," said Martin Reynolds, Director of Technology Assessment at Dataquest. "Compaq's open licensing of the HDL (Hardware Description Language) code for the Open HCI controller removes a major obstacle to the development of host controller chipsets, and will lead to a plethora of compatible, yet competing, host controllers. We expect the future USB market to benefit substantially from this move."

Compaq announced the details of the ASIC design licensing program at a technical seminar it hosted last week in Houston for over 20 chipset, BIOS, processor and motherboard companies on the Open HCI technology. The license consists all of the technical details, functionality and design specifications a vendor needs to fully integrate Compaq's interface design into their own USB controllers.

The draft Open HCI Specification (available now) and the final specification (when available) are being offered under the same open licensing terms as the USB 1.0 Specification. A free copy of the Open HCI specification can be obtained through the World Wide Web on Compaq's product and technical publication's area at http://www.compaq.com, or a copy of the specification can be requested through email at [e-mail]. The USB specification package, which was jointly developed by Compaq, Digital, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NEC and Northern Telecom, is available free of charge through the World Wide Web at: http://WWW.teleport.com/~USB or by calling 1- 800-433-3652 (US $35 for printing and shipping).

Company Background

Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) is the world's largest supplier of personal computers, offering desktop PCs, portable PCs and servers. Founded in 1982, the company reported 1994 worldwide sales of $10.9 billion. Compaq products are sold and supported in more than 100 countries throughout the world. Compaq also sells directly to customers through Compaq Direct Plus 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.

-0-

Compaq, Registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Innovate Forum is a service mark of Compaq.

CONTACT: Compaq Computer Corporation

John Sweney, Hedy Baker, 713/514-0484

or

Miller Communications

Tony Sapienza, Donna Ruane, 617-536-0470