News release

HP Earns No. 1 Unix Server Spot in Server Evaluation Model by Leading Industry Analyst Firm

For the second time running, HP's (NYSE:HPQ) flagship high-end UNIX® server, HP Superdome, is the top overall UNIX server in the OLTP Server Evaluation Model report published last week by independent analyst firm Gartner, Inc.⁽¹⁾

Gartner's report evaluated the industry's top server vendors on three distinct categories: Technology, Business Practice and Market Momentum. The HP Superdome server placed first in UNIX Platforms in the Technology category. It also tied for first in the Business Practice category, which includes elements such as Capacity-on-Demand, Support and Professional Services. The HP NonStop server, included in the report for the first time, also performed notably well in the Technology category.

In addition, the HP Superdome received top marks in Gartner's Data Warehousing Server Evaluation Model, which rated it the No. 1 single-system UNIX platform.

"The results of Gartner's study further reinforce Superdome's technological advantage and leadership position in the UNIX server market and NonStop's in the massively parallel server market," said Mark Hudson, vice president of worldwide marketing, HP Business Critical Systems. "HP's position in this survey is confirmation that the time and resources we've been investing in our UNIX and other systems businesses are delivering increasing value for our customers who turn to HP for adaptive infrastructure solutions that are highly flexible, scalable and available. Superdome's improved scores in the Market Momentum category reflect the strong customer demand we're experiencing."

Within the Technology category, the HP NonStop servers posted excellent results, especially in performance, clustering, planned and unplanned downtime, disaster tolerance/recovery, partitioning and manageability. In the same category, the HP Superdome server earned high marks in system performance, workload management, high availability and manageability, enabling HP to claim the top Technology spot overall.

Additional information on Gartner's OLTP and Data Warehousing Server Evaluation Models is available through Gartner, Inc. directly. The full report also is available at http://www.hp.com/products1/servers/scalableservers/superdome/infolibrary/gartner_eval.pdf.

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. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

⁽¹⁾ Gartner's spreadsheet-based server evaluation model has existed since 1999 and is now available in its sixth iteration. The Gartner server evaluation model can be used as a numerically specific methodology to complement Gartner's Magic Quadrant. The Gartner server evaluation model is copyrighted October 2002 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission, which permission should not be deemed to be an endorsement of any company or product depicted in the model. Well-informed vendor selection decisions should rely on more than the server evaluation model findings. Gartner research is intended to be one of many information sources including other published information and direct analyst interaction. Gartner, Inc. expressly disclaims all warranties, express or implied, of fitness of this research for a particular purpose. Gartner "OLTP Server Evaluation 3Q02: Expanded Comparisons," A. Butler, G. Weiss, October 2002.

UNIX is a registered trademark of the Open Group.