HP Delivers Industry's Highest-Performing Entry-Level Enterprise RISC, UNIX System Servers; First Implementation of HP Disk Array with AutoRAID Provides HP Customers New Premiere Storage Solution.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 28, 1996--Leading the industry in delivering market-leading entry-level UNIX(R) system RISC-based server solutions, Hewlett-Packard Company today announced new HP 9000 D-Class enterprise servers and added a revolutionary new RAID product to its storage portfolio -- HP Disk Array with AutoRAID.

The new enterprise servers -- Models D260 and D360 -- offer customers a performance increase of more than 60 percent over previous HP servers and are powered by two large-cache PA-7200 CPUs, surpassing high-end PC servers and entry-level UNIX system, RISC-based servers. The HP 9000 Model D360 has achieved unparalleled price/performance with an audited TPC-C result of 3,803 tpmC at $170/tpmC running on Sybase SQL Server 11. Additionally, the new D-Class servers are slated to be field upgradable to the world's fastest processor -- the PA-8000 -- this fall.

"The new HP 9000 D-Class enterprise servers are a perfect example of how less is sometimes more in that they surpassed all of the competition with only two of our industry-leading PA-RISC(1) processors," said Carol G. Mills, general manager of HP's General Systems Division. "Coupled with the addition of HP Disk Array with AutoRAID, a state-of-the-art storage solution that provides customers with unsurpassed ease-of-use and leading performance, these servers give HP a significant edge over its competition. With today's announcement, HP can deliver customers a very compelling total solution in the entry-level UNIX system server space."

Taking Industry Performance to the Next Level

The latest tpmC benchmark ranks the HP 9000 D360 far above both high-end PC servers and low-end UNIX system, RISC servers with the following statistics:

- 22 percent better performance than Sun's newest server

powered by a 64-bit processor, the Ultra-Enterprise 2

server;

- more than 5 times the performance of IBM's E20 at less

than half the price/performance; and

- faster than the four-processor Compaq Proliant 4500

using Windows NT and Microsoft(R) SQL server.

"HP's announcement of its new entry-level UNIX system, PA-RISC servers strengthens our longstanding, mutual commitment to provide customers with cost-effective, high-performance database solutions," said Bruce Armstrong, vice president of Server Products Group at Sybase Inc. "Sybase's SQL Server 11 for Workplace UNIX, in conjunction with HP's new UNIX system, PA-RISC-based servers, allows our customers to deploy a powerful database server solution in both UNIX system and low-cost, highly distributed PC LAN environments."

The HP 9000 D260 and D360 are ideal as large-capacity web servers, featuring standard Internet capability, expansive configuration options and file-serving capabilities. The new servers also are well-suited for small-to medium-size businesses, workgroups and small departments in corporations. Common applications for these new servers include database and applications processing, messaging, workgroup file management and product-data management.

FIRST IMPLEMENTATION OF HP AUTORAID TECHNOLOGY

The HP 9000 server product line is the first UNIX system to incorporate HP AutoRAID technology into its storage portfolio. Intended for entry-level and midrange systems, HP Disk Array with AutoRAID includes ease-of-use and fault-resilient features, as well as self-optimizing performance and on-line self-configuration capabilities. These features make it a substantially easier and less costly system for a system administrator to manage.

Designed to provide high-performance, highly available on-line storage for mission-critical OLTP and small-scale DSS applications, HP Disk Array with AutoRAID is well-suited for electronic commerce and trading, customer support and service, on-line information services and production control. By incorporating HP AutoRAID technology into its portfolio, HP is reinforcing its commitment to deliver state-of-the-art storage solutions for HP 9000 customers.

The new D-Class servers include other advanced high-availability features typically found in larger systems, including CPU failover protection, automatic memory-page de-allocation, on-line hot-plugging of internal disk, soft power-off graceful shutdowns and a multichannel input/output subsystem for higher throughput.

The HP 9000 D-Class servers also incorporate HP's advanced 960MB/s runway processor memory bus and support up to 1.5GB of memory, 5TB of disk storage, up to 12-way memory interleaving, eight expansion slots and aggregate I/O bandwidth of 320MB per second. The new servers are fully binary-compatible with all other HP 9000 servers, giving customers access to more than 12,000 HP-UX(2) applications.

U.S. PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Pricing for the HP 9000 D260 begins at $33,590 and includes two PA-7200 processors, 128MB of memory, 2GB of internal disk, a SCSI-2 interface, a CD-ROM drive, local area networking interfaces and a client/server HP-UX 10.01 license. The new systems are available today.

A fully loaded HP Disk Array with AutoRAID is $36,700 and includes 12 2GB disk drives, dual controllers with 24MB mirrored cache and a redundant power supply. HP Disk Array with AutoRAID is expected to be available to HP 9000 customers in June.

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-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 108,300 employees and had revenue of $31.5 billion in its 1995 fiscal year.

Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com. -0-

Note to Editors: (1) PA-RISC stands for Precision Architecture-reduced-instruction-set computing.

(2) HP-UX 9.X and 10.0 for HP 9000 Series 700 and 800 computers are X/Open(tm) Company UNIX(R) 93 branded products. HP-UX 10.10 is an X/Open UNIX 95 branded product.

X/Open is a trademark of X/Open Company Limited in the UK and other countries.

UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited.

Windows is a U.S. registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.

Microsoft is a U.S. registered trademark of Microsoft Corp.

CONTACT: Hewlett-Packard

Holly Duncan, 408/447-1665

e-mail: [e-mail]