News release

Previews of Next Generation Compaq AlphaServer Systems Get Enthusiastic Customer, Partner Reviews

AlphaServer Family Roadmap Continues on Schedule, Meeting Key Delivery Milestones

Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) today announced that it has begun delivering preview models of its next-generation AlphaServer systems for testing by customers and partners.

Compaq plans to officially launch initial models of the AlphaServer Family systems based on new (EV7) Alpha processor technology later this year. These systems will be the company's most technically advanced family of AlphaServer systems ever, delivering the industry's strongest combination of performance, scalability, reliability and availability for mission-critical enterprise and high-performance technical computing.

"Response to the preview systems from our customers and partners has been extremely enthusiastic," said Howard Elias, senior vice president and general manager of Compaq's Business Critical Solutions Group. "Customers are pleased that we remain focused and on schedule in meeting the commitments we made to deliver a next generation AlphaServer family before moving to the Itanium Processor family as the platform for our 64-bit enterprise servers."

Breakthrough Technology

The new AlphaServer family will incorporate significant new customer focused technology including:

• The Alpha EV7 processor, which contains all the building blocks of a symmetric-multiprocessing (SMP) system on a single chip, providing substantially improved performance, single system scalability and reliability.
• An industry-first "switch-less" mesh architecture that directly connects the AlphaServer processors, delivering true linear scalability to 64 processors and beyond with increased system reliability.
• A reusable modular component architecture enabling customers to redeploy, adapt and seamlessly grow their AlphaServer systems in step with business requirements.
• New levels of serviceability through an integrated server management system, built-in diagnostics and self-healing and self-guided servicing capabilities.
• New levels of system reliability including substantially reduced component counts, inline data correction and fault management and innovative RAID memory protection.

Customer Reaction

"We have been absolutely delighted with the results of our preliminary testing of these new AlphaServer systems," said Rod Coombs, vice president, Technology Product Management, Cerner Corporation. "Not only do they continue a tradition of performance leadership, the enhancements to system modularity, flexibility, compatibility and manageability continue to make AlphaServer systems an excellent choice for our customers, who deploy our solutions in truly mission-critical environments throughout the spectrum of healthcare—from community hospitals to very large integrated delivery networks."

Dr. Michael Levine, Scientific Director, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), said, "These new AlphaServer systems deliver what we require for the largest non-defense supercomputer we have here at PSC. Not only do they deliver more usable bandwidth than anything else, the modularity of the system architecture in conjunction with its manageability makes this an outstanding platform for this decade. We continue to be delighted by the decision we made to use Compaq AlphaServer technology."

Jean Gonnord, Numerical and Simulation & Computer Sciences Team program director at the French Atomic Energy Commission/Military Applications Department (CEA/DAM), said, "Current AlphaServer systems have already substantively exceeded our performance goals for TERA 1. Our preliminary tests on the new AlphaServer systems showed a substantial boost in performance for our applications, placing these new systems in a good position on the path forward to our next challenge: TERA 10. We have no doubts at all about Compaq's commitment to step up to this challenge."

Gerd Koebschall, head of Xetra/Eurex Operations, Deutsche Boerse Systems, said, "We are very impressed with the new AlphaServer system because it provides a secure, resilient and powerful path forward that protects and builds on our application investments. The advances in redundancy, memory bandwidth and I/O capabilities delivered by the new distributed mesh architecture will allow us to meet our growing user requirements by consolidating very large and powerful SMP configurations in an easy to manage single system."

Analyst Reaction

"The new AlphaServer family will be a very strong offering for mission-critical business processing and high-performance technical computing and a flexible platform for server consolidation," said Jean Bozman, Research Director for International Data Corporation's worldwide server group. "Its powerful microprocessors and low-latency I/O subsystem make it a strong foundation for AlphaServer customers to run their most demanding applications as they make their plans for the next five-year time horizon."

"Compaq is clearly driving the state of the art for server designs going forward. With its next generation AlphaServer systems, Compaq continues its tradition of delivering the finest technology for the most demanding business and technical computing problems," said Terry Shannon, publisher of Shannon Knows Compaq newsletter. "The partitioning options, switch-less mesh architecture and dynamic multi-path I/O are advanced features that will translate into higher service levels and greater reliability with increased operating efficiencies in the data center."

Next Generation AlphaServer Family Roadmap

When they begin shipping, in alignment with Compaq's preannounced product roadmaps, the next generation AlphaServer systems will include workgroup, departmental and enterprise systems. The first models, which will include up to eight-processor systems, will be available by the end of the calendar year with larger systems ranging up to 64 Alpha processors and beyond, designed for data-intensive enterprise and high-performance technical computing to follow. The systems will support the Tru64 UNIX, OpenVMS and Linux operating systems.

Additional customer and partner field testing of the next generation AlphaServer systems will occur later this spring. Formal introduction of the AlphaServer family and initial shipments of eight-processor systems will happen late this year with general availability of the AlphaServer departmental systems in 2003. General availability of next generation AlphaServer systems with up to 64 Alpha processors for enterprise and high-performance technical computing is scheduled for later in 2003.

As part of preexisting product roadmaps, Compaq anticipates that the first 64-bit enterprise servers based on the Intel Itanium Processor Family will be available in 2004.

Company Background

Founded in 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation is a leading global provider of information technology products, services and solutions for enterprise customers. Compaq designs, develops, manufactures and markets information technology equipment, software, services and solutions, including industry-leading enterprise storage and computing solutions, fault-tolerant business-critical solutions, communication products, personal desktop and notebook computers, and personal entertainment and Internet access devices that are sold in more than 200 countries directly and through a network of authorized Compaq marketing partners. Information on Compaq and its products and services is available at http://www.compaq.com.