News release

HP Creating Cooling Technologies to Address Data Center Energy Costs

PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 6, 2002

HP (NYSE: HPQ) today announced that it is working on a suite of technologies to address the growing problem of heat generation and energy use in increasingly powerful microprocessors and data centers. The proposed solutions include everything from reinventing HP's classic inkjet technology for cooling semiconductors to heat-sensing robots that patrol data centers, looking for ways to optimize energy use -- and reduce costs dramatically.

As semiconductors become more powerful, the amount of heat they generate has increased significantly. Chips just an eighth of an inch square will soon emit as much heat as a 100-watt light bulb.

High heat density from chips results in high heat loads in servers. In turn, the deployment of a large number of servers in very high densities in data centers leads to data center cooling challenges.

"HP takes a holistic view when developing cooling solutions," said Chandrakant Patel, principal scientist, HP Labs. "We are working on a variety of approaches. At the data center level, we have developed a robot that literally rolls around a data center floor looking for hot spots and signaling the system to adjust cooling or move workloads from one system to another. We believe it can save up to 25 percent of cooling costs."

HP Labs researchers also have created a system to model heat distribution throughout a planned data center. The facility then could be designed and built to optimize energy use by placing equipment and ventilation strategically.

"At the chip level, we've taken an existing technology, the inkjet printing cartridge, and re-engineered it into an efficient, inexpensive cooling device for semiconductors," said Cullen Bash, research engineer, HP Labs. "For tomorrow's high heat densities, cooling is seen as a limiter to performance. Our patented spray cooling technology could help enable future high-performance computing and communication devices."

The spray cooling mechanism shoots a measured amount of dielectric liquid coolant onto specific areas of a chip, according to its heat level. The device controls the distribution, flow-rate and velocity of the liquid in much the same way that inkjet printers control the placement of ink on a printed page. The liquid vaporizes on impact, cooling the chip, and the vapor is then passed through a heat exchanger and pumped back into a reservoir that feeds the spray device.

HP's spray cooling technology avoids the "pooling" effect of other phase change liquid cooling methods that, due to residual liquid left on the chip, actually form an insulating vapor bubble, causing chips to overheat and malfunction.

Systems designers also might use the technology to spray cool entire circuit boards, enabling denser, more powerful systems than are possible with many of today's alternative solutions.

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 completed its merger transaction involving Compaq Computer Corp. on May 3, 2002. The company would have had combined revenue on a pro forma basis with the Compaq transaction of approximately $81.1 billion in fiscal 2001 and has operations in more than 160 countries. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that the market for the sale of certain products and services may not develop as expected; that development of these products and services may not proceed as planned; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to HP's annual report on Form 10-K, as amended on January 30, 2002, for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2001, HP's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended January 31, 2002 (as filed with the SEC on March 12, 2002) and subsequently filed reports. If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes or any of these assumptions proves incorrect, HP's results could differ materially from HP's expectations in these statements. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.