HP Achieves UNIX 95 Brand, Announces Performance Enhancements For Newest Release Of Enterprise-Class HP-UX Operating Environment; HP-UX 10.10 Provides Unparalleled Investment Protection Through Standards Compliance, Scalability, Reliability, Performance Enhancements.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 5, 1996--Continuing its record of strict adherence to industry standards, Hewlett-Packard Company today announced that the newest release of its enterprise-class HP-UX(1) operating system is among the first UNIX(R) systems to receive the X/Open(tm) Co. Limited's UNIX 95 (formerly known as SPEC 1170) brand. HP expects to ship the first UNIX 95 branded operating system to customers later this month.

The new HP-UX release also provides Common Desktop Environment (CDE)-compliance and enhanced features and functionality for HP 9000 server and workstation customers in commercial and technical markets. Major new features of HP-UX 10.10 include the following: -0-

   - UNIX 95 brand;
   - CDE compliance;
   - Network File System (NFS) Diskless upgrade;
   - increased maximum file-system size, larger addressable RAM and
     larger process-data space;
   - support for 60,000 file descriptors;
   - increased system-management capabilities;
   - SMP support for HP VISUALIZE graphics; and
   - Shared Logical Volume Manager (SLVM).-0-

"HP-UX 10.10 provides a high-performance computing platform that meets customers' current functionality requirements, offers unparalleled support for industry standards and ensures investment protection through complete binary compatibility with previous versions of HP-UX," said Richard W. (Rich) Sevcik, HP vice president and general manager of the Systems Technology Group. "As a leader in open-systems standards, we look forward to working with X/Open to create industrywide acceptance of the Single UNIX Specification to help unify the market and accelerate the continued growth of UNIX systems."

"The X/Open brand for UNIX 95 is awarded to products that conform to X/Open Company's Single UNIX Specification, the most comprehensive standard-based operating system specification available in the industry," said Mike Lambert, vice president and chief technical officer of X/Open Company Limited. "I would like to congratulate HP on being among the first companies to deliver a UNIX 95 branded system to market. As other vendors deliver UNIX 95 branded products over the next few months, IT customers will gain access to the full benefits of UNIX systems unification."

HP CONTINUES STANDARDS LEADERSHIP

UNIX 95 Brand -- The UNIX 95 brand is a major development in UNIX system standards that benefits end-users, software developers and UNIX operating-system vendors alike. To receive the UNIX 95 brand, an operating system must pass an extensive test suite developed by X/Open and enter into a trademark license agreement, which guarantees the products' conformance to the Single UNIX Specification. The UNIX 95 brand is the culmination of several years' effort, resulting in the development of X/Open Company's Single UNIX Specification (formerly known as SPEC 1170). This specification includes the most common application programming interfaces, or APIs, derived from application vendors' usage of UNIX system APIs.

As more operating systems receive the UNIX 95 brand, customers will benefit from greater flexibility, applications portability and investment protection. Independent software vendors will benefit from the ability to develop software to a common UNIX system base, without having to develop vendor-specific versions of their application software. HP-UX 10.10 is the first UNIX operating system capable of running UNIX 95-compliant applications.

CDE Compliance -- CDE is a visual desktop-computing environment based largely on HP's Visual User Environment (HP VUE). CDE is considered the de facto standard graphical user interface (GUI) for UNIX system and X Window System-based desktops. It provides a common look and feel across multiple UNIX systems for end-users, software developers and system administrators, as well as application compatibility and portability across heterogeneous UNIX systems. CDE compliance for HP-UX 10.10 provides a consistent, easy-to-use desktop interface, thereby reducing training and increasing user productivity in multivendor UNIX system environments.

Upgrade to NFS Diskless -- Existing HP customers can easily upgrade applications from HP Diskless to the Network File System-based Diskless protocol, an implementation of industry-standard technology. Network File System Diskless provides expanded hardware-configuration capabilities, such as FDDI, multiple LAN-card support and gateway booting. It also has improved client/server connectivity following a reboot or a break in the local area network.

HIGH-PERFORMANCE SCALABILITY

Increased Maximum File-system Size -- HP has increased the maximum file-system size of HP-UX 10.10 from 4GB -- the previous standard for 32-bit operating systems -- to 128GB for both hierarchical and journaled file systems. This enhancement greatly extends the scalability of HP-UX. It significantly benefits technical applications and applications requiring a single file system to process and store data, such as on-line transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing and decision support systems (DSS).

Larger Addressable RAM -- HP also has increased the addressable RAM of HP-UX 10.10 from 2GB to 3.75GB. This increase provides greater flexibility for HP's high-end business server family -- the HP 9000 T-class -- enabling it to respond to the demands of larger commercial and technical environments. It also allows higher system performance by enabling a greater percentage of the application workload to reside in memory. This will greatly benefit application workloads such as high-end, large-scale OLTP, data warehousing and decision support, as well as solids modeling and finite-element analysis.

Both the increased maximum file-system size and larger addressable RAM enable HP-UX 10.10 to outperform competing 32-bit operating systems from other UNIX system vendors, including Sun and IBM, in industry-standard benchmarks such as TPC-C (2).

Larger Process-data Space -- HP's technical computing customers face the constant competitive pressure of faster time-to-market. They will reap the immediate benefit of larger process-data space in HP-UX 10.10, which is increased from .9GB to 1.9GB. The 1.9GB process-data space allows those customers to more efficiently analyze larger simulation models than before.

HP-UX 10.10 also provides higher application performance and scalability by increasing file-descriptor support from 2,000 to 60,000 file descriptors. For example, with certain Sybase applications, this will specifically enable simultaneous access by several thousand additional clients.

UNPRECEDENTED PERFORMANCE

SMP Support for HP VISUALIZE Graphics -- HP VISUALIZE graphics is currently available to customers running HP-UX 9.07 in single-processor mode. HP-UX 10.10 includes symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) support for HP VISUALIZE, which will allow HP users to experience dramatic graphics-application performance improvements when upgrading to HP-UX 10.10.

Shared Logical Volume Manager -- HP-UX 10.10 enables multiple parallel servers to access a single disk file. SLVM is particularly useful for OLTP and DSS applications, in which several systems must access the same logical file. SLVM is used in conjunction with MC/LockManager and for Oracle Parallel Server environments. SLVM also assists in optimizing performance and maintaining data integrity.

HP-UX 10.10 also delivers increased system-management capabilities, facilitating the addition, deletion or modification of system resources in a Network Information Service (NIS) environment while in System Administration Manager (SAM). A new version of SAM is included, which extends the functionality and ease of use of HP-UX through help menus and templates.

LICENSING OPTIONS AND AVAILABILITY

A two-user license for the HP-UX 10.10 environment is bundled with HP 9000 workstations and servers, with additional license levels available. HP-UX 10.10 is expected to be available on Feb. 20.

HP-UX 10.10 is binary-compatible with previous releases and is scalable across HP's entire family of HP 9000 workstations and servers. HP-UX users have access to more than 10,000 UNIX system-based applications from more than 5,000 HP Channel Partners. Users can access DOS-based and Macintosh applications through emulation.

HP is the world's leading supplier of open enterprise computing and is the second-largest computer supplier in the United States, with computer revenue of $25.3 billion in its 1995 fiscal year. HP has been delivering PA-RISC(3)-based business computers since 1986 with high reliability, data integrity, data availability and systems availability.

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global manufacturer of computing, communications and measurement products and services recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 102,300 employees and had revenue of $31.5 billion in its 1995 fiscal year.

Additional information on HP's technical workstation and server solutions is available on the Internet through the World Wide Web at http://www.wsg.hp.com

Additional information on HP's commercial workstation and server solutions is available on the Internet through the World Wide Web at http://www.dmo.hp.com:80/gsy/main.html. -0-

(1) HP-UX 9.X and 10.0 for HP 9000 Series 700 and 800 computers are X/Open(R) Company UNIX 93 branded products. HP-UX 10.10 is an X/Open UNIX 95 branded product. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited. X/Open is a registered trademark of X/Open Company Limited.

(2) TPC-C is a benchmark developed by the industry-wide Transaction Processing Council (TPC). The benchmark defines a rigorous standard for calculating performance and price/performance measured by transactions per minute (tpmC) and $/tpmC, respectively. TPC-C is considered the best standard measure of OLTP performance.

(3) PA-RISC stands for Precision Architecture, reduced-instruction-set computing.

CONTACT: Hewlett-Packard Company

Heidi Wilson, 508/436-5096

e-mail: [e-mail]

Kimberly Daniel, 408/447-4587

e-mail: [e-mail]