HP Delivers World's Most Powerful 64-Bit Four-Way Technical Workstation - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Sept 27, 1999

Hewlett-Packard Company Wednesday introduced the HP VISUALIZE J7000 -- a high-performance four-way symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) system featuring an unprecedented memory capacity -- 8GB RAM -- the largest memory of any available workstation.

The HP VISUALIZE J7000, the newest member of HP's award-winning PA-8500-based(1) HP VISUALIZE Workstation family, catapults workstation memory and performance capacity to new levels for engineers who have been rapidly reaching system limits in the most advanced electronic design automation (EDA) and mechanical design automation (MDA) applications. Its exceptional memory capacity transforms a standalone workstation into a powerful workgroup-capable system -- radically improving throughput for design verification, simulation, analysis and device modeling.

The HP VISUALIZE J7000, with full support for kernel threads in a 64-bit operating system, is a design "powerhouse" for leading-edge engineering teams that handle very large, complex designs and require memory capacities that quickly exceed the scope of conventional workstations.

"The HP VISUALIZE workstation family continues to evolve to meet our customers' most exacting and demanding engineering requirements because we understand our customers' challenges," said Jim Zafarana, marketing manager for HP's Workstation Systems Division. "Having successfully designed 140 million transistors into a two-centimeter square chip, we understand the need for expanded memory bandwidth requirements and robust 64-bit performance."

For EDA applications, multimillion transistor integrated circuits (ICs) in deep submicron and system-on-a-chip designs routinely require memory in excess of 4GB. These applications depend on robust, reliable performance and 64-bit functionality. HP was the first technical-computing vendor in the EDA market to deliver a true 64-bit operating system, and it continues to innovate solutions that deliver peak performance for a variety of the most complex EDA applications.

Today, there are more than a dozen key EDA applications compiled for 64-bit HP-UX(2), including Mentor Graphics Calibre and Avant! Hercules-II. In addition, several software vendors have parallelized applications on HP-UX that can take full advantage of the four-way HP VISUALIZE J7000, including Synopsys Arcadia, Silvaco SmartSpice and Simplex Fire & Ice.

In the MCAE market, mechanical analysis and verification applications such as advanced virtual prototyping and compute-intensive crash-simulation demand the computation of massive sets of data. These memory-hungry applications are common in the automotive and aerospace industries. Now, with four-way processing and massive memory, the HP VISUALIZE J7000 easily manages high-end applications from the deskside. In addition, for design teams of 25 to 35 engineers, the HP VISUALIZE J7000 serves as an ideal and convenient product data management (PDM) system.

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The HP VISUALIZE J7000 workstation is available today in configurations ranging from entry-level 2-D HP VISUALIZE EG graphics to the most advanced configurations with HP VISUALIZE fx6 Pro graphics. A typical entry-level configuration, including 4GB RAM, 18GB disk, monitor and VISUALIZE EG graphics is less than $50,000.

HP's Workstation Systems Division is the world's leading provider of real-world application compute power and innovative, high-performance graphics that enable advanced interactive visualization and rapid virtual prototyping. Designer productivity is the workstation division's primary objective. Consistent delivery of unmatched enterprisewide technical computing solutions has made the Workstation Systems Division a leader in the most demanding technical markets, helping the world's engineers and scientists resolve the toughest design problems.

Information about HP VISUALIZE technical workstations and graphics can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com/visualize.> HP has 123,500 employees worldwide and had total revenue of $47.1 billion in its 1998 fiscal year. Information about HP, its products and the company's Year 2000 program can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

(1) This processor was selected "editor's choice" by Microprocessor Report, a highly respected journal that reports on microprocessor technology.

(2) HP-UX Release 10.20 and later and HP-UX Release 11.00 and later (in both 32- and 64-bit configurations) on all HP 9000 computers are Open Group UNIX 95 branded products.