HP VISUALIZE J5000 Workstation Named Outstanding Workstation of 1999 by Performance Computing Magazine.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 7, 1999--

Hewlett-Packard Company today announced that its UNIX(R) system-based HP VISUALIZE J5000 workstation has been named Performance Computing magazine's "Outstanding Workstation" for 1999. The HP VISUALIZE J5000, featured in the magazine's December issue of outstanding products, won over contending Windows NT(R) and UNIX systems.

This is the third consecutive year that HP has been recognized for its innovation and outstanding workstation performance. HP earned "Outstanding Workstation of the Year" in 1998 for its UNIX system-based HP VISUALIZE C240 workstation. In 1997, its HP VISUALIZE B132L workstation received highest ranking in the publication's history of Review Labs Reference Platforms, which are based on advanced 32-bit graphics workstations. This designation was in recognition of the system's innovative design and outstanding overall performance during lab tests.

"Pure performance excellence still pays handsome dividends, either in terms of bringing products to market more quickly, or performing simulation tests that simply would not be possible on smaller, less-capable workstations," said Ralph Barker, editor in chief for Performance Computing. "The J5000 admirably represents the current state of engineering performance, providing a UNIX system workstation for those engineers who need to get serious now while waiting for advanced 64-bit Intel-based workstations, and who don't mind paying a moderate premium for the engineering excellence."

The HP VISUALIZE J5000, a dual-processor deskside graphics workstation, delivers peak multiprocessor performance for the most demanding applications. The J5000 is well-suited for compute-intensive IC verification and simulation compute farms in electronics design, as well as advanced 3-D design. It handles complicated computational analysis and compute- and memory-intensive processing workloads with ease.

"The J5000 is configured with up to two 440MHz PA-8500 CPUs and up to 4GB RAM (120MHz SDRAM)," said Dick Lubinski, HP VISUALIZE J-Class product manager for HP's Workstation Systems Division. "The on-chip cache design of the PA-8500 CPU provides 500KB of instruction cache and 1MB of data cache, producing a SPECfp95 score of 52.3 and a SPECint95 score of 32.6. This is almost double the performance of competing 64-bit workstations."

"For the third consecutive year, Performance Computing has recognized HP's outstanding workstations contributions, and we are thrilled to accept this year's award," said Jim Zafarana, worldwide marketing manager for HP's Workstation Systems Division. "Designed for the toughest technical-computing jobs, the J5000's 64-bit HP-UX(1) 11 operating environment rises to the extreme challenges of electronic design and advanced 3-D design. This performance has come to be expected in members of the HP VISUALIZE workstation family, and we plan to continue meeting and exceeding the changing needs and demands of our customers."

About HP's Workstation Systems Division

HP's Workstation Systems Division is the world's leading provider of real-world application compute power and innovative, high-performance graphics that enable advanced interactive visualization and rapid virtual prototyping. Designer productivity is the workstation division's primary objective. Consistent delivery of unmatched enterprisewide technical-computing solutions has made the Workstation Systems Division a leader in the most demanding technical markets, helping the world's engineers and scientists resolve the toughest design problems.

More information about HP VISUALIZE technical workstations and graphics is available on the Web at http://www.hp.com/visualize.

About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services for business and home -- is focused on capitalizing on the opportunities of the Internet and the proliferation of electronic services.

HP plans to launch Agilent Technologies as an independent company by mid-calendar 2000. Agilent consists of HP's test and measurement, semiconductor products, chemical analysis and healthcare solutions businesses, and has leading positions in multiple market segments.

HP has 83,200 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $42.4 billion in its 1999 fiscal year. Information about HP, its products and the company's Year 2000 program can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

(1) HP-UX Release 10.20 and later and HP-UX Release 11.00 and later

(in both 32- and 64-bit configurations) on all HP 9000 computers

are Open Group UNIX 95 branded products.

Note to Editors: UNIX is a registered trademark of the Open Group.

Windows NT is a U.S. registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.