News release

HP Registers Record-breaking Performance with Its Enterprise Virtual Array

StorageWorks EVA Outperforms Nearest Competitor by More Than 50 Percent on Storage Performance Council Benchmark-1

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 2, 2002

HP (NYSE: HPQ) today announced record-breaking performance results from the testing of its StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) based on the Storage Performance Council Benchmark-1 (SPC-1).

Using the SPC benchmark, which was designed to represent real world application environments, the EVA's 24,005.54 input/output per second (IOPS) performance in a storage area network (SAN) environment was over 50 percent faster than its nearest competitors - making it the industry leader in open systems workload environments.

HP became the modular storage leader by delivering unbeatable price performance and these phenomenal EVA results prove that we're moving the bar higher every day," said Neal Clapper, vice president and general manager, online storage division, HP Network Storage Solutions. HP is a strong supporter of open and independently audited benchmark testing such as SPC-1, and encourages all storage companies to participate in order to substantiate performance claims."

The record-breaking results are attributed in part to a new fibre channel loop switch approach as well as several other VersaStor Technology innovations that enhance performance capabilities through virtualization.

"The SPC benchmark results for the Enterprise Virtual Array are impressive," said John C. "Jack" Scott, managing partner, Evaluator Group Inc. "The performance of the EVA makes it applicable for a wide range of applications from high-performance environments to SAN consolidation solutions. The addition of the back-end loop switches to the device architecture of the Version 2 has added to the EVA's already impressive performance."

The EVA's virtualization functionality uses automatic block-level data striping and redistribution to tune its own performance without manual intervention from a storage administrator. The self-tuning occurs automatically in the background as the EVA spreads existing data across an expanded pool of disk drive actuator arms, improving user service levels.

Modular controller pairs, each servicing up to 240 individual hard disk drives, offer scalable capacity and performance for large databases. In contrast to traditional systems with a fixed number of performance "engines," EVA can scale the number of controller pair systems infinitely, thus offering the flexibility to match capacity and performance to particular application needs.

To additionally optimize performance, the EVA is configured to use 85 percent of its installed capacity.

HP is a strong supporter of open and independently audited benchmark testing such as SPC-1, and encourages all storage companies to participate in order to substantiate performance claims.

Specific SPC-1 Results

Tested storage configuration name: HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array Model 2C12D