Compaq Unveils the AlphaServer ES45,
                   Industry's Most Powerful Mid-Range Server


Houston, Texas -- October 16, 2001 -- Building on  its  ten-year  leadership  in
64-bit computing, Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) today  introduced  the
AlphaServer ES45 system, the industry's most powerful mid-range server.

The new  AlphaServer  ES45  system  includes  up  to  four  1 GHz  64-bit  Alpha
processors, and is  available  with  the  Tru64 UNIX  with  TruCluster  Servers,
OpenVMS or Linux operating systems. The ES45, which has  outperformed  its  mid-
-range competition in both industry-standard and commercial benchmark tests,  is
the only mid-range server available with a full 64-bit 1 GHz processor.

In addition to the AlphaServer ES45, the company also introduced the AlphaServer
SC45 system, a scalable, single-image supercomputer model based on the ES45, and
the availability of  new  certified  configurations  based  on  Tru64 UNIX-based
AlphaServer ES45 systems and Oracle9i Real Application Clusters.

"The delivery and rapid deployment of these systems is another  example  of  how
Compaq is at the  heart  of  providing  the  industry's  most  comprehensive  IT
solutions for the most advanced, real-time enterprise environments," said Howard
Elias, senior vice president and general manager of Compaq's  Business  Critical
Solutions Group. "We are intensely focused on the challenges and requirements of
today's  marketplace,  and  our  customers  and  partners  have  recognized  and
experienced the tremendous competitive advantage  that  Compaq's  platforms  and
solutions, such as the new ES45, can bring to their businesses."

Among the customers who have  purchased  the  new  AlphaServer  systems  is  the
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, which is using 760 ES45 systems with more than
3,000 Alpha processors integrated into an SC45 system for  the  world's  largest
non-military supercomputer.

"The AlphaServer SC45 system's  increased  bandwidth  and  memory  access  speed
contributed greatly to our benchmarking results, confirming our decision that it
was clearly the best system for our  needs,"  said  Michael  Levine,  scientific
director, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. "This system brings significant  new
research capability to bear on many important  problems.  While  the  immediate,
direct beneficiaries will be academic scientists, the benefits will flow to  the
country as a whole, in practical ways we can't forecast."

"Compaq continues to provide the highest possible performance at the most  cost-
-effective price for our customers," said  Rich  Marcello,  vice  president  and
general manager of Compaq's High Performance Systems Division. "The enthusiastic
response from customers who have installed these systems  is  testament  to  our
ability to provide the industry's highest performing systems to  meet  the  most
demanding application needs."


Delivering the Highest Performance of Any Mid-Range System

With its high performance, demonstrated scalability and high  availability,  and
leadership clustering capabilities with Tru64 UNIX and OpenVMS, the  AlphaServer
ES45  is  targeted  for  users  in  areas  such  as  high-performance  technical
computing, telecommunications, e-business and healthcare.

The AlphaServer ES45 system has demonstrated  its  power  with  industry-leading
performances  in  both  industry-standard  and  commercial  benchmarks.  In  the
industry-standard SPECint_rate2000 integer benchmark,  the  quad-processor  ES45
performed 50 to 75 percent faster than its competitors and more  than  twice  as
fast in the SPECfp_rate2000 floating point performance benchmark. In  a  single-
-processor SPECfp2000 floating point performance benchmark, the ES45, powered by
a 1 Ghz, 64-bit Alpha processor, performed at more than twice the speed  of  its
mid-range competitors.

The ES45 systems come with up to four 1 GHz Alpha processors and 32 GB of memory
and offer 8 GB per-second bandwidth and 1.85 GB per-second of I/O bandwidth.

Richard Roach, senior director of ASP  market  development  for  SAS  Institute,
said, "SAS Institute recently launched IntelliVisor, an ASP service that applies
data mining technology to help online retailers maximize  profitability.  Memory
access speed is critical to us. We process an enormous amount of data every day,
using the latest data  mining  technology.  The  faster  I/O  bandwidth  of  the
AlphaServer ES45 will let us iterate the data more often, improving the  quality
of the reports we provide our clients."

In clustered configurations, ES45 systems running Tru64 UNIX or OpenVMS  deliver
guaranteed 99.999 percent up-time availability  for  business  critical  systems
with defined Compaq Services offerings.

The AlphaServer ES45 is already shipping with models starting at $58,000.


AlphaServer SC45: Unparalleled Scalability for High Performance Computing

The AlphaServer SC45 supercomputer can scale up to  huge  systems  that  include
thousands of processors delivering multiple TFLOPS (trillions of operations  per
second) performance  to  meet  the  most  demanding  compute-intensive  research
projects.

The SC45 systems, whose single system image  provides  unparalleled  ease-of-use
and manageability, is available with the Tru64 UNIX operating system.

In addition to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, other large  supercomputers
relying on the ES45 include the French Atomic Energy Commission with the largest
supercomputer in Europe, and the Australian Partnership for  Advanced  Computing
with the largest university supercomputer in Australia.

The AlphaServer SC45 with a base system of 16  Alpha  processors  and  16 GB  of
memory is also available now with prices starting at $899,000.


Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Certified Configurations

Compaq also announced the availability of new Oracle9i Real Application Clusters
Certified Configurations on the Tru64 UNIX-based AlphaServer ES45. The certified
configurations -- which are pre-tuned, fully stress tested, and pre-installed --
will be available in November 2001.

"Oracle9i Real Application  Clusters  running  on  Compaq's new  ES45  certified
configurations will offer customers impressive  scalability  and  availability,"
said Juan Jones, vice  president,  Systems  Platform  Division,  Oracle.  "These
certified configurations will help customer eliminate complexity,  reduce  costs
and increase  productivity  by  standardizing  their  computing  environment  on
integrated systems from Compaq and Oracle."

Additionally, Compaq with its unique "9 Days Program" pledges  that  a  customer
is guaranteed installation of an Oracle9i Real  Application  Clusters  Certified
Configuration within nine days of receipt of the customer order.


Company Background

Founded in 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation  ("Compaq")  is  a  leading  global
provider of enterprise  technology  and  solutions.  Compaq  designs,  develops,
manufactures and markets hardware, software, solutions and  services,  including
industry-leading enterprise  storage  and  computing  solutions,  fault-tolerant
business-critical solutions, communication products, and  desktop  and  portable
personal computers that are sold in more  than  200  countries.  Information  on
Compaq and its products and services is available at http://www.compaq.com

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Notes: 

SPEC® and  the  benchmark   name   SPECcpu2000,   SPECfp2000,   SPECfp_rate2000,
SPECint2000, and SPECint_rate2000 are  registered  trademarks  of  the  Standard
Performance Evaluation Corporation. Competitive  benchmark  results  used  above
reflect results published on www.spec.org as of Oct  15, 2001.  The  comparisons
presented are based on the best performing UNIX RISC 4-cpu servers from  HP  and
IBM (and the best single processor system from Sun). For the latest  SPECcpu2000
benchmark results, visit http://www.spec.org

Compaq and the Compaq logo are trademarks  of  Compaq  Information  Technologies
Group, L.P. Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks  and/or  registered
trademarks of their respective companies. This news release may contain forward-
-looking statements that  involve  risks,  uncertainties  and  assumptions.  All
statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be
deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions  include
the possibility that the Hewlett-Packard/Compaq merger does not  close  or  that
the companies may be required to modify aspects of the  transaction  to  achieve
regulatory approval or that prior to the closing of  the  proposed  merger,  the
businesses of the companies suffer due to uncertainty; the market for  the  sale
of certain products and services may not develop as expected;  that  development
of these products and services may not  proceed  as  planned;  that  Compaq  and
Hewlett-Packard are unable to transition customers, successfully  execute  their
integration strategies, or achieve  planned  synergies;  other  risks  that  are
described from time to time  in  Compaq  and  Hewlett-Packard's  Securities  and
Exchange Commission reports (including but not limited to Compaq's annual report
on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000, HP's annual  report  on  Form
10-K for the year ended October 31, 2000, and subsequently  filed  reports).  If
any of these risks or uncertainties materializes or  any  of  these  assumptions
proves  incorrect,  Compaq's  results  could  differ  materially  from  Compaq's
expectations in these statements. Compaq assumes  no  obligation  and  does  not
intend to update these forward-looking statements.