News release

HP Breaks Price-performance Barriers, Broadens Customer Choice with Expanded ProLiant Server Line

New, easy-to-own Linux-based clusters, HP ProLiant server with AMD Opteron processors give customers better value on x86 servers

In conjunction with the upcoming one-year anniversary of the AMD™ Opteron™ processor, HP today extended its Linux-based high-performance cluster offerings to include an HP ProLiant server based on the AMD Opteron processor.

With the new HP LC 3000 series clusters, customers can avoid the complex and labor-intensive process of building and deploying server clusters, while improving performance and scalability and lowering the total cost of ownership.

The company also announced record-breaking performance benchmarks and the availability of the industry-standard HP ProLiant DL585 server, which combines AMD Opteron processor technology, enhanced management capabilities and outstanding uptime features in a system ideal for customers with compute-intensive workloads.

"HP is pushing back on competitors in the server market with competitive pricing and more choice on x86 servers that deliver customers the best price/performance in the industry," said James Mouton, vice president, platform division, Industry Standard Servers, HP. "With this new cluster series and the availability of the new ProLiant DL585, we further extend choice to enterprise and high-performance computing customers, making it easier to purchase and take advantage of AMD Opteron processor-based ProLiant servers."

HP scales up Linux cluster portfolio; scales down cost of ownership

To meet increased customer demand for cost-effective x86 solutions running Linux in the high-performance computing market, the HP High Performance Compute Cluster LC series featuring the HP ProLiant DL145 server offers superior 32-bit performance with industry-standard features and the ability to scale to 64-bit environments.

The new LC 3000 systems are excellent performers in environments where the workload is a mix of 32-bit and 64-bit applications, such as electronic design automation and the oil and gas industries. Applications that are compute intensive and run well on clusters of IA-32-based systems, such as many computational fluid dynamics applications, will also see advantages with AMD Opteron processor-based clusters.

The HP HPC Cluster LC series also provides value and flexibility to customers looking to reduce the expense of building and maintaining reliable, manageable and supportable clusters for computational applications.

Using both industry-leading Intel® Xeon™-based HP ProLiant servers and now AMD Opteron processor-based HP ProLiant servers, the HPC LC suite has three main offerings:

• The LC 1000 series - Xeon-based HP ProLiant DL140 servers - offers low-cost performance with minimal overhead.



• The LC 2000 series - Xeon-based HP ProLiant DL360 servers - offers competitive performance with enterprise reliability and manageability to meet remote administrative needs.



• The LC 3000 series - AMD Opteron processor-based HP ProLiant DL145 servers - offers 32-bit performance scalable to 64-bit environments.

The LC series is composed of certified partner and application solution stacks as well as freeware and open source offerings. HP supports a range of HPC solutions provided by independent software vendors, including Altair Engineering, Axceleron, Cyclades, Engineered Intelligence, Meiosys, Platform Computing, Red Hat, Scali, Sistina and United Devices.

In addition, customers using the HP Factory Express service can purchase and deploy HPC LC series integrated clusters easily by leveraging HP's world-class manufacturing capabilities, engineering expertise and skills on the factory floor, eliminating the need to hire on-site consultants and keeps implementation costs down.

Record-breaking HP ProLiant DL585 server

The HP ProLiant DL585 server with AMD Opteron processors, offering the industry's leading performance for a four-way x86 server, is designed to support multiple applications, tasks and critical databases.

The server recently earned the top Microsoft Windows® Exchange Server 2003 Performance and Scalability benchmark result for four-processor servers, using the new MMB3 benchmark. The server supported 7,800 MMB3 (users), which is more than an eight percent increase in users over the previously published record.⁽¹⁾

"Philips Research is excited that HP will support AMD Opteron processors in the proven ProLiant server line," said Patrick Stemkens, Philips Research ICT Manager, Philips High Tech Campus. "We have been waiting for a four-processor system with large memory capacity for Linux applications, and the HP ProLiant DL585 will be an excellent fit for our needs. With HP's reputation and support, we expect these new systems to provide immediate performance gains, protect our 32-bit investments and provide a transition path to 64-bit computing."

Additionally, HP achieved an outstanding result for four-way servers in the two-tier SAP® Sales and Distribution (SD) Standard Application Benchmark, with 712 SAP SD Benchmark users.⁽²⁾ The benchmark was run on the HP ProLiant DL585 server with SAP R/3® Enterprise 4.70 running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition (Certification No. 2004018). The configuration consisted of four-way AMD Opteron processors Model 848 at 2.2 gigahertz, with one megabyte of L2 cache and 16 gigabytes main memory. The achieved throughput was 71,330 fully processed order line items per hour. The standardized and well defined SAP benchmarking procedure helps to determine the optimal hardware configuration for customers' IT solutions.

Pricing and availability

The HP ProLiant DL585 server is available today, starting at an estimated U.S. list price of $8,299.⁽³⁾ The HP LC series based on the ProLiant DL145 server is available today, starting at an estimated U.S. list price of $67,829.⁽³⁾

More information on HP ProLiant servers and LC cluster solutions is available at http://www.hp.com/products/servers/platforms.

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. For the last four fiscal quarters, HP revenue totaled $74.7 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

⁽¹⁾ The HP ProLiant DL585 server, using four AMD Opteron processor Model 848 Series running at 2.2 GHz with 1 MB L2 cache and on-board 2.2-GHz memory controller, achieved the four-processor result of 7,800 MMB3 (users) on the Exchange Server 2003 Performance and Scalability Benchmark.

⁽²⁾ All of the SAP Benchmark results noted fully comply with the SAP Benchmark Council's issued benchmark regulations and have been audited and certified by SAP AG. This benchmark is current as of April 19, 2004. For additional details on these and other SAP benchmarks, please visit http://www.sap.com/benchmark.

⁽³⁾ Actual prices may vary.

AMD and AMD Opteron are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. Intel is a registered trademark and Xeon is a trademark of Intel Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. SAP, R/3 and all other SAP product and service names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries around the world.

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 and performance of these products and services may not proceed as planned; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended Jan. 31, 2004, and HP's other Securities and Exchange Commission reports filed after HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2003. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.