News release

Compaq AlphaServer ES45 Establishes New World Record TPC-C Benchmark for Four-Processor Systems (Advisory)

Sets New Price/Performance Standard for UNIX Servers

Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) announced today that its AlphaServer ES45 system has established a new TPC-C performance record for four-processor UNIX systems and also has set a new price/performance record for all UNIX systems.

The Compaq AlphaServer system running Tru64 UNIX and Oracle9i Database Enterprise Edition for Tru64 UNIX achieved a record-breaking 50,117tpmC (transactions per minute) in the industry standard benchmark. In establishing the new standard, the AlphaServer ES45 server, using four Compaq 64-bit, 1 GHz Alpha microprocessors, also posted a breakthrough price/performance figure of $15.24/tpmC (per transactions per minute), topping competing UNIX servers from Sun, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

For further information on the benchmark result, visit http://www.compaq.com/hps/news/tpcc02.html.

"Today's announcement is further evidence that we deliver the industry's most cost-effective, high-performance enterprise solutions," said Rich Marcello, vice president of Compaq's High Performance Server Division. "The AlphaServer ES45 system is ideally suited to meet the most demanding data-intensive requirements of our targeted high-performance technical computing, telecommunications and e-business customers."

The TPC-C breakthrough follows similar record-breaking results established last year by both stand-alone and clustered AlphaServer ES45 systems running Oracle database software in the SAP R/3 Sales and Distribution benchmarks.

Among the customers who have purchased the new clustered AlphaServer systems is the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, which is using 760 ES45 systems with more than 3,000 Alpha processors integrated into an SC45 system, for the world's largest supercomputer used for unclassified research.

Terry Shannon, IT analyst and publisher of Shannon Knows Compaq, said, "In today's challenging marketplace, customers recognize and appreciate the competitive advantage and value delivered by the versatile and powerful AlphaServer ES45. Some vendors design systems to rapidly process computationally-intensive applications while others design specialized systems to analyze data, finding relationships and patterns that help predict the future. Compaq AlphaServer systems consistently fulfill both needs better than their competition and the strong demand for the new ES45 system in the business and HPTC arenas underscores this fact."

Based on joint engineering with Oracle, Compaq offers business and technical customers pre-configured, Certified Oracle9i Real Application Cluster systems that take full advantage of the superior performance and price performance of the AlphaServer ES45. These clustered database packages offer the optimum in scalability, availability and cost-effective management. They are available now⁽¹⁾ for rapid deployment by select Compaq partners within nine days of order. For more information visit http://www.oraclecompaqclusters.com/register/.

Company Background

Founded in 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation is a leading global provider of information technology products, services and solutions for enterprise customers. Information on Compaq and its products and services is available at http://www.compaq.com.