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DIGITAL'S NEW OPENVMS ALPHA AXP SERVER CAPABILITIES IDEAL FOR COMPUTER
DOWNSIZING

RECORD-SETTING PERFORMANCE, OPENVMSCLUSTERS, SYMMETRIC MULTIPROCESSING,
50 LAYERED SOFTWARE PRODUCTS, AND OVER 500 APPLICATIONS

Digital Equipment Corporation has announced the best performance results
of any server on the market with its Alpha AXP system and major software
enhancements, ahead of schedule, to its OpenVMS operating system.
Digital also announced the availability of more than 500 Alpha AXP
applications from partners, more than 50 Digital layered software
products, and a new Universal Platform Guarantee for its Alpha AXP
systems.  For the large number of companies looking for ways to increase
computing power and capabilities while decreasing computing costs,
Digital's OpenVMS Alpha AXP servers are an ideal choice for computer
downsizing solutions.

"With these announcements, a new class of RISC systems is now available
in the marketplace -- one that combines the leadership data integrity,
availability, and scalability of OpenVMS with the record setting
performance and price/performance of Alpha AXP," said William R. Demmer,
vice president of Digital's Computer Systems Group.  "These systems are
clearly in the vanguard for customers with computer downsizing
requirements because they combine mainframe functionality with
leadership cost-effectiveness," he added.

ALPHA AXP SYSTEMS -- THE WORLD'S FASTEST SERVERS

The DEC 10000 Model 610 AXP system running an ORACLE7 database in a
client/server environment has demonstrated the highest relational
database performance in the industry for a single processor system.  At
258.02 tpsA-Local, it far outperforms even the fastest IBM RS/6000, HP
9000, and SUN uniprocessor systems.  At $8,368/tpsA-Local, it also leads
the field in cost-effectivess, with the lowest cost per transaction of
any system in its class.  Alpha AXP systems provide the industry's
highest performance in both commercial and technical environments as
demonstrated by new record-setting performance results, also released
today on SPECint92, LINPACK, and Sort benchmarks in addition to TPC-A.

LEADERSHIP OPENVMS FUNCTIONALITY NOW ON ALPHA AXP SYSTEMS

OpenVMS AXP Version 1.5 greatly extends the power of Alpha AXP systems
with symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), allowing multiple CPUs to share
physical memory and other system resources.  By providing greater system
throughput and low-cost growth these SMP systems easily meet downsizing
needs.  OpenVMS AXP Version 1.5 supports dual SMP on the DEC 4000 AXP
system and up to six processors on the DEC 7000 AXP and the DEC 10000
AXP systems.  With six processors, the DEC 10000 model 660 provides a
SPECrate_int92 rating of 12,864 and a SPECrate_fp92 rating of 24,748 --
far exceeding any SPEC performance results reported by any vendor.

An additional DEC 4000 AXP processor is priced at $30,000, and
additional processors for DEC 7000 AXP and DEC 10000 AXP systems are
prices at $40,000.

OpenVMS AXP Version 1.5 is now orderable and will ship in May 1993.  As
announced in March 1993, it includes Digital's renowned OpenVMScluster
capabilities that offer exceptional data integrity, availability, and
scaling -- all highly desirable features for computer downsizing
solutions.  OpenVMS AXP Version 1.5 also includes enhanced I/O
capabilities.

Over 50 Digital layered software products are now available for Alpha
AXP systems, delivering a comprehensive software development, database,
and networking environment.  Among the new software products shipping
this quarter are DEC COBOL, DEC DBMS, DECscheduler, and DECnet Version
1.5, adding to key software products already available, such as DEC
FORTRAN, DEC C, PATHWORKS, and Rdb.

More than 500 applications are available this quarter from software
partners such as the ASK Companies, Cincom, Cognos, Inc., Oracle
Corporation, Ross Systems, Inc., and Sybase Inc.  According to Jerry
Baker, senior vice president of Oracle's Product Line Division, "Oracle
is very excited about combining Alpha AXP performance and OpenVMS
technology with ORACLE7.  Oracle's architecture allows users to take
full advantage of the advanced technologies available with OpenVMS
including SMP and clusters.  We expect to attract many new customers who
are looking for a robust, high-performance database with the
Digital/Oracle combination," Baker added.

Digital also confirmed today that future versions of the OpenVMS
operating system will be enhanced to include 64-bit support of large
databases and files.  This will allow the capacity of databases and
files to increase by four billion times, as compared to 32-bit
environments.  This will open up entire new application arenas, from
advanced imaging to advanced simulation, all made possible by Alpha AXP,
the premiere 64-bit architecture in the world.

According to Kenneth R. Swanton, director, OpenVMS Systems Marketing,
"Today's announcements open a new chapter for OpenVMS which has grown to
a community of over ten million users over the past 15 years.  Now the
majority of the robust OpenVMS standards-based software environment is
available on Alpha AXP systems, the most advanced RISC platform in the
world.  Our goal is to attract millions of new users with this
combination -- especially in computer downsizing."

OPENVMS VAX FUNCTIONALITY ENHANCED

Digital continues its commitment to the VAX platform with OpenVMS VAX
Version 6.0, providing customers with a robust, easy-to-use-and-install
upgrade.  Key features include increased memory (3.5 GB of physical
memory), 2 GB of system virtual address space, C2 security
certification, and further I/O enhancements.

Customers can configure clusters with both VAX and Alpha AXP systems.
VAXcluster sites can add up to 15 Alpha AXP systems in a single cluster.
The Aberdeen Group of Boston, Massachusetts, states that "...this will
allow more than 90 percent of cluster customers to comfortably look at
buying Alpha now, while protecting customers' substantial investments in
clustered VAX hardware and software and applications."




UNIVERSAL PLATFORM GUARANTEE
In addition to OpenVMS, the Alpha AXP universal platform supports the
DEC OSF/1 and Windows NT operating systems, so customers have the
flexibility to choose based on their needs.  Today's new Universal
Platform Guarantee extends this flexibility into the future.  If a
customer later decides to redeploy an Alpha AXP system with a different
operating system, Digital protects the customer's original operating
system investment with a 75% trade-in credit towards the purchase of the
new operating system.  This applies to each of the OpenVMS, DEC OSF/1,
and Windows NT operating systems which are supported on a given Alpha
AXP system.

Computer Downsizing Opportunities with Alpha AXP OpenVMS Servers

According to Richard E. Whitman, director of Digital's Computer
Downsizing Program, "OpenVMS AXP with its support of symmetric
multiprocessing, OpenVMS clustering, hundreds of software products, and
open standards offers unmatched functionality in areas critical for
computer downsizing.  This joins Digital's Alpha UNIX products and
Alpha-ready VAX OpenVMS VAX products to provide a wide range of computer
downsizing platforms."

Digital is implementing a major worldwide marketing campaign targeted at
computer downsizing.  The campaign covers the range from helping
customers simply re-host their existing application on lower cost
servers, to helping customers re-engineer and re-architect their
solutions using Digital's extensive service capabilities.  Added
Whitman, "Digital has been a leader in computer downsizing for years.
With Alpha AXP systems we expect to accelerate our new customer
migrations that are looking for the ideal computer downsizing solution."

Digital Equipment Corporation, headquartered in Maynard, Massachusetts,
is the leading worldwide supplier of networked computer systems,
software, and services.  Digital pioneered and leads the industry in
interactive, distributed, and multivendor computing.  Digital and its
business partners deliver the power to use the best integrated solutions
-- from desktop to data center -- in open information environments.


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________________________________________________________________

"To live is to change. To be perfect is to have changed often."
                               -John Henry Newman

Name: Ian R. Wylie            Internet : iwylie@uk.ac.dund.mcs
The University of Dundee
Great Britain
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