Compaq adds muscle to workstation lineup

Electronic News, June 16, 1997 by Cynthia Bournellis

Compaq bore an even deeper hole into the Unix hegemony last week when it released two new professional Windows NT workstations based on both Pentium Pro and Pentium II microprocessors. The success of these systems will rely in large part on Compaq's new multiprocessor initiative, also unveiled last week.

The new initiative includes joint ventures with key applications developers to optimize software performance for the Professional Workstations' multiprocessing architecture. Noting the proprietary world or Unix and RISC, John Rose, a Compaq senior VP, said this new initiative will result in standards-based multiprocessing systems that will take advantage of productivity software supported by third-party components and additional processors. Compaq said it will also work with its applications partners in the areas of sales, marketing, training and service. While the biggest concern from analysts in October was Compaq's ability to recruit enough independent software vendors (ISVs), the list of participants since then has grown from 16 to 27 and includes Adobe Systems, Softimage, Parametric Technology, Kinetix and Oxford Molecular. "The price of these systems gives us a certain amount of flexibility we need to streamline our production efforts," said Leo Rossi, VP of Highway One, a media entertainment company in Santa Monica, Calif. Highway One has ported seven applications to the Wintel platform. For Oxford Molecular, an applications developer in the areas of chemical, pharmaceutical and biotechnical research, the Professional Workstations will open up new markets in the area of experimental chemistry, for example, where programs could only be written by people who knew how to use a Unix workstation, explained George Purvis III, COO of the U.S. division of Oxford Molecular. Much of the leadership that will support the multiprocessor initiative will come from Compaq's Software Segmentation group, located in the Boston area. This well-kept secret within Compaq was formed to develop, test and certify ISVs, as well as assist in creating co-marketing agreements. "The formation of this group illustrates that Compaq (at one time) was inexperienced in the workstation market," said Stella Kelly, president of Market Metrics, a consulting firm in Los Gatos, Calif. "They have learned from the past and are now building an infrastructure to maximize opportunities in this market." Compaq's tenacity to become the number one computer vendor led company executives in October to commit to shipping 100,000 workstations over the next 12-15 months, not including high-end desktops. "Now seven months into it, we will exceed that goal," said Mr. Rose, adding that customer acceptance of the first line of Professional Workstations, the 5000 series, has been anything but disappointing. New to the Professional Workstation line are the Workstation 6000 and Workstation 8000 families. Workstation 6000 supports up to two 266MHz or 300MHz Pentium IIs and up to 512 megabytes of memory. The 300MHz system will ship in Q397. Workstation 8000 supports up to four 200MHz Pentium Pro processors and comes with 3 gigabytes of memory. Target markets are computer-aided design and engineering, digital content and finance. Both product families combine Compaq's highly parallel system architecture--which is a high-bandwidth input/output scheme that eliminates network bottlenecks--with high-end graphics technology. Both can be configured with graphics controllers including Matrox Millennium II, ELSA Gloria-L or the Fire GL-4000 from Diamond Multimedia. Customers can now perform functions such as antialiasing, Gouraud shading, fog, transparency and overlays. "Up until now, NT hasn't been an option except for the financial community," said Rich Maule, VP of the new Graphics Systems division, formed last fall, at Evans & Sutherland.