Fast-Growing HP PC Business Takes Aim At Emerging Personal Workstation
Market

HP to Leverage its Leadership in High-performance PCs and Industry-leading
ISV Support on Growing Desktop Opportunity

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA. MAY 20, 1996

In a bid to provide customers with the industry's broadest family of
desktop solutions for Microsoft Windows NT operating environments,
Hewlett-Packard Company today said it is developing a new family of
products aimed at the emerging personal workstation market.

HP believes that by leveraging its growing presence in the PC market and
with strong support from a host of industry-leading technical ISVs, HP is
ideally positioned to help a growing segment of customers take advantage
of the latest advances in X86 processor and Windows NT operating-system
technologies. These customers are rapidly driving the evolution of a new
class of product, defined by some as personal workstations. HP believes
that its new Windows NT-based personal workstations, together with its
leading UNIX system technical workstations will give customers
unparalleled choice and flexibility in high-performance desktop systems.

"We expect to be the first major PC vendor to bring personal workstations
to market with the all the performance, applications and world-class
service and support they want," said Jacques Clay, general manager of HP's
Extended Desktop Business Unit. "HP will provide customers with the most
complete line of desktop solutions, spanning all technologies, price
points and major distribution channels."

"We're now in an excellent position to leverage our UNIX system market
leadership to meet the growing number of current X86 customers considering
Windows NT-based solutions for technical computing," said Richard C.
Watts, HP vice president and general manager of the Computer Systems
Operation. "At the same time, HP will continue to focus on providing
industry-leading UNIX system workstations for customers with complex and
demanding technical requirements in the design, analysis and product
development fields," Watts said.

Growing Customer Base

Initially, HP is targeting mechanical- and electrical-design engineers,
creative professionals and other experts who need high-performance systems
based on industry-standard hardware and software. The products are slated
to be available through value-added resellers and HP's distribution
partners. HP believes there is a growing number of customers with a need
to expand performance limits in the technical, financial and entertainment
fields while maintaining lower cost of ownership. HP believes that the
advances in PC price/performance, driven primarily by the proliferation of
Intel Pentium Pro processors and Microsoft NT 32-bit operating system
software, are rapidly growing this customer base.

"With HP's new technical workstations based on the Pentium Pro processor,
customers can now have all the economic advantages of the PC coupled with
HP's renowned support infrastructure," said Carl Everett, senior vice
president of Intel's Desktop Products Group. "HP understands the
requirements of high-end workstation and high-performance PC customers and
is well-positioned to offer its customers the best of both worlds."

"Windows NT Workstation on HP's Pentium-Pro-based workstation offers
customers performance typically associated with more expensive
workstations while providing a lower cost of ownership," said Jim Allchin,
senior vice president of the desktop and business systems division at
Microsoft Corp. "In addition, because Windows NT Workstation supports
industry-standard APIs, software developers are able to write great 32-bit
applications, which take full advantage of this performance."

HP intends to tailor its personal workstation products especially for
technical and creative professionals who require high computational power
and advanced three-dimensional graphics capabilities. The first HP
personal workstations are expected to be available later in 1996.

Strong ISV Support

In addition, HP is leveraging its understanding of and relationships with
the leading independent software vendors (ISVs) who provide products for
this market. HP has created specific programs designed to bring together
varying expertise in the ISV and distribution-channel communities.

With the goal of becoming the preferred X86/Windows NT platform supplier
for technical ISVs, HP has created a system seeding program that enables
ISVs to obtain HP systems on which to design and test applications. HP
recognizes the need to provide solutions in different segments in the
technical workstation market and has encouraged leading ISVs in various
application categories to take advantage of HP's new desktop platform.

Initially, industry-leading ISVs such as Autodesk; EDS/Unigraphics;
Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI); Mentor Graphics;
Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC); and Structural Dynamics Research
Corporation (SDRC) say they will participate in HP's NT personal
workstation program.

ISV Comments

Continuing advancements in microprocessor and operating-system technologies
now make it possible to increase performance and customer flexibility in
considering PC workstations. Industrywide, ISVs are voicing their support
for HP's new personal workstation initiative in this new and challenging
market.

"HP has consistently pushed the industry forward, providing leading
technology in the right combination for customers, and now is the time to
create a market category for the NT-Intel customers that are migrating
upward into the technical markets," said Vaughn Davis, HP platform manager
for EDS/Unigraphics. "HP has created an excellent opportunity for the ISV
community to create applications for this new class of systems by
providing the tools we need to succeed."

"As a long-time strategic partner, HP is one of the premier certified
hardware providers for PTC's Pro/ENGINEER family of software products used
to automate the mechanical development of a product from its conceptual
design through its release into manufacturing," said Olimpio DeMarco,
manager of strategic relations for Parametric Technology. "HP systems
currently support the largest number of Pro/ENGINEER licenses installed in
our customer base. Now, HP can leverage our fastest-growing market segment
-- Windows NT platforms -- which accounts for 20 percent of our quarterly
unit shipments."

"Autodesk is committed to providing the most powerful and cost-effective
solutions to our millions of AutoCAD customers on the PC platform," said
Robert Carr, vice president of engineering at Autodesk, Inc. "NT is a key
operating system for Autodesk and for the entire design community. HP
understands the needs of the technical marketplace and Autodesk is
confident that our strong relationship with HP will lend itself to both
companies prospering during this great migration to NT."

"Mentor Graphics, as a leader in UNIX system-based tools, is expanding our
product offerings to provide customers best-in-class Windows NT and/or
mixed UNIX system and Windows NT design environments. We are committed to
meeting customer demands by providing high-end design tools that run on
Windows NT platforms," said Kerry Araujo, director of Strategic
Partnerships Unit at Mentor Graphics. "HP is providing the tools for the
ISV community to offer EDA solutions that are anywhere-anytime
Client/Server, and is offering our mutual customers the right hardware
solution for Windows NT applications."

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global manufacturer of computing,
communications and measurement products and services recognized for
excellence in quality and support. HP has 105,200 employees and had
revenue of $31.5 billion in its 1995 fiscal year.

Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at
http://www.hp.com.
 
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