New Workstations: HP Expands Industry-Leading Workstation Family With New Windows NT-Based HP Visualize Personal Workstations - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, April 19, 1999

Hewlett-Packard Company, the worldwide workstation leader(1), Monday unveiled HP VISUALIZE Personal Workstations, a new family of high-performance, Windows NT-based systems featuring Intel's new Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon processors. These new systems are targeted at the growing segment of technical and creative customers who require a value-added, build-to-order sales model; the most advanced graphics technologies; and leadership 3-D application performance in a Windows NT environment.

By combining these solutions with the powerful UNIX system HP VISUALIZE workstation line and the high-performance, volume-leading Windows NT-based HP Kayak PC Workstation family, HP offers customers a breadth of leading workstation solutions that is unmatched in the industry. Available immediately with a U.S. list price starting at $3,225(2), HP VISUALIZE Personal Workstations will be manufactured by HP under a "build-to-order" fulfillment model that allows customers to select their exact configuration and price point, and have their systems delivered direct from HP. Systems will be sold directly by HP's technical-workstation sales force and through a network of certified HP resellers demonstrating solution-selling expertise in key technical and creative markets, such as mechanical-design automation and digital-content creation. Based on HP's award-winning HP VISUALIZE fx graphics architecture, HP VISUALIZE Personal Workstations achieve leading application performance. Like HP Kayak PC Workstations, they also add optimal system management and reliability through innovative HP-engineered technologies, such as HP TopTools, HP MaxiLife and HP UltraFlow. No other workstation vendor can deliver more powerful, manageable and dependable workstation solutions. "By adding HP VISUALIZE Personal Workstations to the industry's broadest, highest-performing workstation portfolio, HP has seized the opportunity to serve the most demanding 3-D users in the Windows NT workstation market," said Patty Azzarello, worldwide marketing manager of HP's Workstation Systems Division. "With HP VISUALIZE Personal Workstations, HP establishes a new standard in workstation graphics and application performance, while meeting customer demand for rapid, direct delivery and overall value." The HP VISUALIZE P-Class and X-Class Personal Workstations The HP VISUALIZE P450 and P500 Personal Workstations deliver affordable, advanced processing power and graphics performance to engineers, designers, scientists and artists who interact with large models in complex workflow environments. The HP VISUALIZE X500 and X550 Personal Workstations are designed for advanced professional users who perform simulations, virtual prototyping, complex modeling and high-end visualization tasks and who demand leading-edge graphics performance and processing power. HP Extends 3-D Graphics-industry Leadership The new HP VISUALIZE-fx graphics subsystems incorporate advanced graphics technology originally designed for HP VISUALIZE UNIX workstations and are tuned for leadership performance on mission-critical technical applications. For example, an HP VISUALIZE X500 with fx4 graphics is twice as fast as Silicon Graphics' 320 Visual workstation and 1.8 times faster than Dell's 610 Precision GMX2000 workstation on the Indy3D-MCAD 150 benchmark and 1.5 times faster than these same competitive systems on the Indy3D-Animation benchmark. On ProE Bench98, another typical application benchmark, the HP VISUALIZE X550 with fx6 graphics is 10 percent faster than an IBM Z-Pro III Xeon 550 with Intense 3D Wildcat 4000 graphics. Performance for the fx6 system based on Viewperf 6.1 benchmarks is as follows: Awadvs-02: 54.38; DRV-05: 21.37; DX-04: 29.91; Light-02: 3.219; ProCDRS-01: 22.71. In addition, to meet the needs of customers who require a broad range of graphics offerings, the new systems will support the ELSA GLoria Synergy graphics card,(3) providing entry-level 3-D capabilities at a competitive price. Configurations, U.S. Pricing and Availability The following HP VISUALIZE Personal Workstations are available immediately:

System                HP VISUALIZE           HP VISUALIZE
                      P450                   P500

Intel Pentium III
processors            450MHz                 500MHz
(single or dual)

ECC SDRAM             128MB - 768MB          128MB - 768MB
Memory

Hard Drive            up to two              up to two
                      10,000rpm              10,000rpm
                      Ultra-wide SCSI        Ultra-wide SCSI

Mass Storage          6GB - 36GB             6GB - 36GB

3-D Graphics          ELSA GLoria            ELSA GLoria
                      Synergy  ,(3)          Synergy  ,(3)
                      HP VISUALIZE           HP VISUALIZE
                      fx2  and fx4           fx2  and fx4 

Sample                Intel Pentium III      Intel Pentium III
Configuration         450MHz                 500MHz
and                   processor,             processor,
U.S. List Price       128MB SDRAM,           128MB SDRAM,
without monitor       6.2GB hard drive,      6.2GB hard drive,
                      ELSA GLoria            HP VISUALIZE
                      Synergy                fx2  graphics
                      graphics

                      $3,225                 $5,355


System                HP VISUALIZE           HP VISUALIZE
                      X500                   X550

Intel Pentium III
processors            500MHz Xeon            550MHz Xeon
(single or dual)

ECC SDRAM             128MB - 2GB            128MB - 2GB
Memory

Hard Drive            two 10,000rpm          two 10,000rpm
                      Ultra-wide SCSI;       Ultra-wide SCSI;
                      optional HP            optional HP
                      FastRAID               FastRAID

Mass Storage          9GB - 36GB             9GB - 36GB

3-D Graphics          ELSA GLoria            ELSA GLoria
                      Synergy  ,(3)          Synergy  ,(3)
                      HP VISUALIZE           HP VISUALIZE
                      fx2 , fx4 , fx6        fx2 , fx4 , fx6 

Sample                Intel Pentium III       Intel Pentium III
Configuration         500MHz Xeon             550MHz Xeon
and                   processor,              processor,
U.S. List Price       128MB SDRAM,            128MB SDRAM,
without monitor       9.0GB Ultra-            9.0GB Ultra-
                      wide SCSI hard          wide SCSI hard
                      drive, HP               drive, HP
                      VISUALIZE               VISUALIZE
                      fx4  graphics           fx6  graphics

                      $7,530                  $8,915