Compaq Delivers Professional
Workstation SP700 with Pentium III Xeon
Processor and PowerStorm 600 Graphics
High-End 3D Graphics Solution Renders New Class of Performance
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 17, 1999--Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE:CPQ - news)
today announced worldwide availability of the Professional Workstation SP700 with the new Intel
Pentium® III Xeon(tm) 500 MHz and 550 MHz(1) processors, as well as the addition of the new
PowerStorm 600 high-end 3D graphics solution to the company's workstation graphics lineup. Based on
Wildcat(tm) graphics technology from Intense3D(tm), the PowerStorm 600 offers SP700 customers the
fastest performance available on Windows NT for demanding 3D graphics applications.
''With today's announcement, Compaq has coupled the fastest Intel processors to date with
best-in-class 3D graphics technology to build a supremely powerful workstation,'' said Les Crudele, Vice
President and General Manager, Workstation Division, Compaq Computer Corp. ''These superior
technologies, joined in the scalable, high-bandwidth architecture of the SP700, enable our customers to
achieve the highest levels of performance for computer-aided design and engineering, graphics
animation, visual simulation and other graphics-intensive applications. The Professional Workstation
SP700 truly offers our customers the best of all worlds.''
Powerful New Pentium III Xeon Processors
The SP700 is Compaq's first Professional Workstation to incorporate Intel's new Pentium III Xeon 500
and 550 MHz processors. In addition to offering higher clock speeds, Pentium III Xeon processors
incorporate Intel's Streaming SIMD Extensions, which provide significant performance improvements on
many graphics-intensive and multimedia applications. When coupled with graphics cards designed to
take advantage of these extensions, such as Compaq PowerStorm 300 and 600 graphics solutions,
Pentium III Xeon processors deliver even more substantial performance improvements.
''The Pentium III Xeon processor delivers leadership performance for high-end business servers and
workstations,'' said Anand Chandreshakar, general manager, Intel Workstation Product Group.
''Combining the Compaq PowerStorm 600 with the new level of computing made possible by the
Pentium III Xeon processor provides solutions that deliver excellent flexibility and versatility, with
outstanding price performance advantages for the user.''
Industry-Leading 3D Graphics Technology
The PowerStorm 600 adds a high-performance, geometry-accelerated 3D graphics solution to Compaq's
comprehensive array of 2D and 3D graphics options. Based on the award-winning Wildcat 3D graphics
technology from Intense 3D, the PowerStorm 600 complements the proven power of the Compaq
Professional Workstation SP700 and delivers new levels of performance and functionality for the most
demanding workstation users. The PowerStorm 600 features an on-board geometry processor that
offloads the host CPU of hidden line removal, transparency calculations, clipping and other floating-point
intensive tasks and provides up to 64 MB of fast, local texture memory. The PowerStorm 600 controller
makes the SP700 even more compelling for customers working with large texture maps, multiple overlay
planes and atmospheric effects, as well as customers performing complex visual analyses of large
computer-aided design or geophysical models or rendering realistic 3D animation sequences.
''Partnering with an industry leader such as Compaq helps us further our vision of enabling every
desktop with affordable, high-performance 3D graphics,'' said Jerry Peterson, president, Intense3D.
''Pairing Wildcat Graphics with key technologies such as the Highly Parallel System Architecture in
Compaq's Professional Workstation SP700 will provide the added performance required for
graphics-intensive applications.''
''QUALCOMM is currently using Intel Pentium II processor-based Compaq workstations for a variety of
its mechanical engineering and software development projects in San Diego,'' said Kevin Workman,
manager/senior engineer, QUALCOMM. ''With the release of the Compaq Pentium III Xeon Systems
and their new PowerStorm 600 graphics adapter, we will be able to offer an enterprise class workstation
processor and graphics performance for our mechanical engineering department.''
Complete High-Performance System
In addition to supporting up to two Pentium III Xeon processors with up to 1 MB full-speed Level 2
cache, the SP700's industry-standard Highly Parallel System Architecture delivers unmatched
workstation-level features, including support for up to 4 GB of 100 MHz ECC SDRAM. The Highly
Parallel System Architecture delivers a high degree of parallelism to virtually every subsystem, including
1.6 GB/sec. of peak memory bandwidth and 267 MB/sec. of aggregate I/O bandwidth, for the highest
levels of application performance on an industry-standard architecture.
Compaq has also made several new high-performance options available to SP700 customers, including
new 2D graphics cards and high-speed storage systems. The Matrox Millennium G200 and the Matrox
Productiva G100 Multi-Monitor solution offer one of the fastest 2D graphics cards available today and a
graphics solution that can be configured to power up to four displays with a single PCI card,
respectively. Among the new storage options is a Wide Ultra2 SCSI controller and hard drives.
Compaq also offers customers a variety of service and support options to meet their availability needs,
ranging from installation and startup, to same-day onsite support, to around-the-clock high-availability
services.
Pricing and Availability
The Professional Workstation SP700 with Pentium III Xeon 500 MHz processors is available
immediately starting at $4,023(2) for a system with 128 MB of ECC Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), a
9.1 GB Wide-Ultra SCSI 10,000rpm hard drive and ELSA GLoria Synergy graphics with 8 MB of
SGRAM. A Pentium III Xeon 500 MHz processor-based system with PowerStorm 600 graphics, 256 MB
of SDRAM and a 9.1 GB Wide-Ultra2 SCSI 10,000rpm hard drive starts at $8,140. Pentium III Xeon 550
MHz processors will be available in the Professional Workstation SP700 in 2Q99.
Company Background
Compaq Computer Corporation, a Fortune Global 100 company, is the second largest computer
company in the world and the largest |
