Compaq Readies Fibre Channel Storage Products for Shipment in First Quarter 1998.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 10, 1997--

Other Innovative New Storage Products Announced

Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE:CPQ), the world's leading server vendor and the fastest growing supplier of storage subsystems,(1) today announced that enterprise-class storage products based on Fibre Channel technology will be made generally available in the first quarter of 1998. These products are currently undergoing extensive evaluation at over 250 customer sites throughout the fourth quarter of 1997. The Fibre Channel storage interconnect technology gives customers the unprecedented combination of scalability, maximum data availability, and high throughput to handle rapidly growing server storage requirements, simplify storage management, and reduce their enterprise computing costs.

"By focusing on customers' needs and advancing industry standards, Compaq is delivering Fibre Channel storage systems that simplify our customers' lives and increase their access to information," said Vic Mahadevan, Compaq's Vice President of the Enterprise Storage and Options Division. "With the introduction of Fibre Channel, we are creating the building blocks of a new paradigm in enterprise storage--versatile, open storage networks."

"This announcement is a bold step for Compaq as this new external storage strategy embraces the immediate benefits offered from Fibre Channel," said Thomas Lahive, Senior Storage Analyst with Dataquest. "Users can now scale to enterprise-level capacities at commodity-like prices, yet the architecture provides support for next generation enhancements."

What is Fibre Channel? Fibre Channel is the next generation in storage technology, combining the reliability and low latency of a serial "channel" with the flexibility and connectivity of a "network." The result is a 100 megabyte-per-second storage network that supports simultaneous transfer of many different data protocols, including SCSI, IPI and IP. Compaq is one of the sponsors of the American National Standards Institute committee responsible for developing the Fibre Channel standards. Over two-thirds of the storage industry have adopted these new standards as an enabling technology for high availability storage networks and server clusters.

Fibre Channel: Compaq's Storage Solution for the Future

Compaq has chosen Fibre Channel as its strategic direction for high-performance and high-capacity external storage because it provides the best means of satisfying customers' growing enterprise storage needs. Fibre Channel will shatter the distance, connectivity, capacity and bandwidth limitations of competing storage technologies, and will be offered in an integrated solution using Compaq servers, drives, and controllers.

With Compaq's Fibre Channel Storage System, customers can build a highly scalable and modular storage architecture using Compaq's Fibre Channel Host Controllers, Fibre Channel Arrays and Fibre Channel Loop Expansion Modules. The Fibre Channel Host Controller is the Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) host interface enabling users to attach multiple storage devices to a single PCI or EISA host slot(2). The RAID functionality and disk drives are contained in the Fibre Channel Arrays, providing simultaneous scalability of capacity, processing power and cache. The Fibre Channel Loop Expansion Module can connect multiple devices to the FC-AL, providing a very high degree of connectivity and simplicity of storage growth.

Compaq continues to work closely with its customers to ensure that this new Fibre Channel storage solution is designed for today's real-world computing environments. "Through an early access program, we've been able to evaluate Compaq's Fibre Channel Storage System," said John Swanteck, Vice President of Technology, First Union Capital Markets. "We believe that Compaq's Fibre Channel will give us more bandwidth, and provide us with greater scalability and connectivity than our current systems. This is the solution we've been looking for to prevent bottlenecks and keep the data moving in our trading floor applications."

Working with Key Partners

Compaq will implement its Fibre Channel solution with the help of key storage partners-part of Compaq's open vendor strategy that has significantly contributed to its growing prominence as a leading storage vendor. For example, the recent partnership announced between Compaq and Hewlett-Packard Components Group (HPCG) enables the two organizations to share interoperability information in order to establish Fibre Channel as a stable platform for highly reliable, high-speed storage applications-making it easier for customers to adopt the Fibre Channel interconnect as an industry standard.

"Hewlett-Packard Company's Components Group and Compaq are committed to the interoperability, reliability and performance of Fibre Channel through our Fibre Channel IC and host bus agreements," said Julian Elliot, manager of HP's Components Group's High-speed I/O Business Unit. "We believe that by working together, we can realize more quickly the customer benefits that Fibre Channel promises."

Through the Enterprise Storage Management Alliance, Compaq has also partnered with Computer Associates to jointly deliver storage solutions designed to facilitate the access, protection, and management of mission-critical data for enterprise environments.

"CA and Compaq are combining their strengths to deliver innovative systems and storage management solutions for the emerging distributed enterprise," said ReiJane Huai, CA senior vice president and general manager. "CA's ARCserve is an ideal companion to Compaq's Fibre Channel products delivering high capacity, high performance and high availability storage solutions which meet the needs of enterprise customers."

New Hard Drives Announced

In conjunction with the new servers being announced today (see related Compaq news release), Compaq is broadening its array of industry-leading storage products and closer aligning its storage and options with its mainstream and enterprise server lines. Two new first-to-market hard disk drives include:

-- A Wide-Ultra SCSI-3 10,000 RPM Hard Drive: the best performing industry standard hard drive available with a 26 percent average (40 percent peak) performance increase over standard 7200 RPM hard drives. With 4.3 GB 1-inch and the industry's first 9.1 GB 1.6-inch capacities available, these drives allow customers to maximize either spindles or capacity without sacrificing performance. -- The industry's first 18.2GB Wide-Ultra SCSI-3 Hard Drive: this 7200 RPM drive provides the lowest cost per megabyte and offers the highest storage density available in a 7200 RPM 3.5-inch drive. It comes in a 1.6-inch form factor and is available for hot-pluggable ProLiant servers and storage systems.

The 10,000 RPM hard drive is available in volume now and has an estimated street price of $1,993 for a 9.1GB drive and $1,256 for a 4.3 GB drive. The 18.2 GB hard drive is scheduled to be available in volume later in the fourth quarter of this year and is expected to have an estimated street price of $2,726.

Other New Storage Products

Other storage products being announced today include:

-- The Digital Linear Tape (DLT) Library Model 3570, which can backup up to a terabyte of data in less than 10 hours. Estimated street price: $18,182 for a single drive model and $28,409 for a dual drive model. -- The Compaq CD Storage System, which delivers simultaneous access to multiple CD-ROMs for a network of users from a centralized, secure and manageable databank. Estimated street price: $3,406 for a tower model and $4,499 for a rack-mountable model. -- The 4/8 GB SLR Tape Drive for entry-level servers and workstations. Estimated street price: $505. -- The 12/24 GB DAT Tape Drive, which extends Compaq's DAT family with higher reliability, twice the speed and three times the capacity of the DDS2 DAT Drive. Estimated street price: $1,193. -- The Dual Channel Wide-Ultra SCSI-3 Controller, which is designed primarily as a complimentary controller for high-end tape solutions. Estimated street price: $453. -- Computer Associates International's ARCserve 6.5 for Windows NT, which combines leading-edge performance, automation and disaster recovery to set the standard for Windows NT backup and restore. Suggested list prices: $1395 for the Enterprise Edition and $795 for the Single Server Edition.

Company Background

Founded in 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation, a Fortune 100 company, is a global information technology company. Compaq is the fifth largest computer company in the world and the largest global supplier of personal computers. With worldwide sales of $20 billion in 1996, Compaq develops and markets hardware, software, solutions and services, including industry-leading enterprise computing solutions, fault-tolerant business-critical solutions, networking products, commercial desktop and portable products and consumer PCs. The company is an industry leader in environmentally friendly programs and business practices.

Compaq products are sold and supported in more than 100 countries through a network of authorized Compaq marketing partners. Customer support and information about Compaq and its products can be found at http://www.compaq.com or by calling 1-800-OK-COMPAQ in North America. Product information and North America reseller locations can be obtained by calling 1-800-345-1518.

Compaq North America is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Its products and services are sold and supported through a network of more than 25,000 commercial and consumer marketing partners across the United States and Canada.

Historical financial results have been restated to reflect the pooling of Tandem.

NOTES (1) Based on International Data Corporation's 1997 Forecast, which projects Compaq to assume the second highest worldwide sales of disk subsystem in 1997-11.7 percent of the disk storage subsystem market. Compaq is already the number one vendor of storage subsystems attached to servers running Microsoft Windows NT, Novell IntranetWare and all other LAN operating systems. In the multi-user disk storage subsystem market, Compaq is demonstrating industry-leading growth at 52 percent.

(2) The arbitrated loop connection method is similar to a token ring, where each device arbitrates for loop access and, once granted, has a dedicated connection between sender and receiver. The available bandwidth of the loop is shared among all devices. Because no switch is required to connect devices, the per-connection cost is significantly less than it is with other methods. -0-

Compaq, 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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Lisa Marafioti

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