News release

HP and MIT Announce Joint Effort to Advance Wireless Networking

Top Researchers from Industry and Academia Working to Revolutionize Wireless Architectures and Technologies

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 23, 2002

HP (NYSE: HPQ) today announced that top researchers from HP Labs and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are collaborating to revolutionize the design of wireless networks and the mobile appliances that use them.

To this end, HP has created a Center for Wireless Networking as part of invent@mit, a $25 million, five-year multi-faceted research alliance launched by HP and MIT in June 2000. The center brings together faculty, staff and students from different corners of the MIT campus to work on diverse aspects of wireless research without the limitations of current architectures or current products.

Researchers at the new center will focus on a radical, interdisciplinary approach to wireless system design that is intended to dramatically extend the battery life of portable appliances, significantly increase the reliability and data rates of mobile network infrastructures and provide the flexibility to support entirely new classes of applications and services.

"This initiative brings together an incredible pool of talent from both institutions with expertise ranging from digital communication and networking to signal and media processing to circuits, systems and devices," said Gregory Wornell, associate professor, electrical engineering and computer science, MIT. "Working together, they have the capability to develop the fundamental design principles for the next generation of wireless networks and mobile appliances."

"The goal of HP's mobile streaming media initiative is to develop a network infrastructure that can truly deliver media to people on any network and on any device," said Susie Wee, research and development manager, HP Labs Streaming Media Systems project. "This is an extremely difficult problem because of the demands presented by mobility and streaming media. The fresh thinking needed to solve it is being jump-started by bringing together academic and industrial perspectives on the same tough problem."

The collaboration is part of a larger research alliance between HP and MIT on digital information systems. HP has invested $2.2 million for the first three years of this alliance as the first phase of a long-term partnership in the wireless area with MIT.

invent@mit -- the HP and MIT alliance -- is a joint venture created by HP and MIT to carry out collaborative, leading-edge research in digital technologies at the intersection of industry and academic needs. Invent@mit, which was formed in August 2000 as a five-year project, focuses on three areas: communications and computing platforms, e-services for commerce and business and fundamental research. HP invests about $5 million a year in project funding and infrastructure for this ambitious partnership.

About HP

HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP merged with Compaq Computer Corp. on May 3, 2002. The merged company had combined revenue of approximately $81.7 billion in fiscal 2001 and operations in more than 160 countries. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

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