DIGITAL ADDS NEW ALPHA-BASED PASSIVE BACKPLANE SYSTEMS AND MOTHERBOARDS TO
PCI PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

Low-Cost PC Platform Solutions From Digital Offer OEMs Industrial Strength
Performance, Longevity and Adherence to Industry Standards

MAYNARD, Mass., April 2, 1996 -- As part of its continuing efforts to
deliver stable, flexible solutions to its OEM customers, Digital Equipment
Corporation today announced three additions to its line of PCI (peripheral
component interconnect) products: an Alpha-based PCI passive backplane
system and the Alpha PCI 64 and Alpha PCI 164 single board computers.
Digital's range of PCI solutions allows OEMs to design high-performance
PC-based systems quickly and cost-effectively with a choice of either
passive backplane or motherboard approaches to product design.

"As OEM market considerations such as shorter product life cycles and the
shift from the VME to PCI standard become more critical, OEMs are
increasingly looking toward commercial off-the-shelf PCI products to meet
their next-generation product development needs," said Bill Armitage, vice
president of Digital's Embedded and Real Time OEM Products Business. "By
offering PCI-based products at both the modular components and motherboard
level, Digital affords OEMs design alternatives that increase product
longevity and hasten time-to-market."

OEMs Plan Long-Term Technology Direction Around Digital's Modular Computing
Components

An element of Digital's line of Modular Computing Components -- comprised
of PICMG (PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturer's Group) processor cards,
PICMG backplanes and enclosures -- the Alpha-based PCI passive backplane
system affords OEMs greater product design versatility. OEMs have the
option of either robust 64-bit RISC Alpha or industry standard Intel CPU
architectures and can choose from Microsoft Windows NT, VxWorks, Digital
UNIX and OpenVMS operating systems.

OEMs now designing around the Intel Pentium-based PCI Passive Backplane
system, announced in September 1995, easily can migrate applications to
the higher performance 233 MHz Alpha-based system. The products' adherence
to industry standards established by the PICMG -- a consortium of passive
backplane manufacturers -- guarantees easy upgradability to advanced
computing technology. By using the passive backplane as the base platform
and updating the processor and peripheral cards, OEMs can extend the
product lifecycle up to five years and reduce development costs by
approximately 20 percent annually.

The backplane systems are available in two configurations -- commercial
quality desktop and tower enclosures, and a rackmount enclosure -- to be
integrated easily into either office/control room environments or
industrial settings.

OEMs Can Swiftly and Cost-Effectively Enter Highest-Performance Computing
Segments of the Embedded Market With New Alpha PC Motherboards

For OEMs seeking rapid entry into high-performance segments of the embedded
computing market -- data acquisition, data interpretation and raster image
processing -- the Alpha PCI 64 and 164 single board computers are the
highest performing, most cost- effective Alpha PC motherboards available.
These boards provide the ultimate in performance for compute intensive
embedded applications with minimal risk and at low cost.

Powered by the Alpha 21064 and 21164 microprocessors, the boards run at
speeds of 266 MHz and 300 MHz. At 300 MHz, the 21164-based boards are at
least 90 percent faster than Intel's current offerings.

Pricing and Availability

The Alpha-based PICMG single board computers are priced starting at $2,995.
The Intel-based systems are priced between $1,595 and $2,995. The Alpha
PCI 64-275 board for Windows NT with 21064-275 MHz CPU and 2 MB of cache
is priced at $2,853. The Alpha PCI 164-275 board for Windows NT with 21164
MHz CPU and 2 MB of cache is priced at $4,218. All are available
immediately.

Digital Equipment Corporation is the world's leader in open client/server
solutions from personal computing to integrated worldwide information
systems. Digital's Intel and Alpha platforms, storage, networking,
software and services, together with industry- focused solutions from
business partners, help organizations compete and win in today's global
marketplace.

All Digital press releases, fact sheets and backgrounders are archived on
ftp.digital.com in the /pub/Digital/info/pr-news directory. They are also
available at http://www.digital.com/info/pr-news/ on the World Wide Web .
 
 =========================================================
 From the 'New Product News' Electronic News Service on...
 AOL (Keyword = New Products) and Delphi (GO COMP PROD)
 =========================================================
 This information was processed from data provided by the
 company/author mentioned. For additional details, please
 contact them directly at the address/phone# indicated.
 Trademarks are the property of their respective owners!
 =========================================================
 All submissions for this service should be addressed to:
 BAKER ENTERPRISES,  20 Ferro Dr,  Sewell, NJ  08080  USA
 Email:   rbakerpc@aol.com   --or--   rbakerpc@delphi.com
 =========================================================
