Digital Equipment Corporation
                                               Maynard, Massachusetts 01754-2571

Editorial contact:

Lisa Lipson
(508) 568-4352


                     DIGITAL EXTENDS ALPHA PERFORMANCE LEAD
                  WITH SPEED UPGRADES TO ALPHA MICROPROCESSORS

                           Alpha 21164 Up to 333MHz


MAYNARD, Mass. -- October 2, 1995 -- The world's  fastest  microprocessors  just
got faster with the announcement today of speed upgrades to the Alpha 21164 (the
BIPS chip) and Alpha 21064A microprocessors. Digital Equipment Corporation  will
now offer the Alpha 21164-333MHz chip, with estimated SPECint92  performance  of
400 and SPECfp92 of 570,  and  the  Alpha  21064A-300MHz  chip,  with  estimated
SPECint92 of 220 and SPECfp92 of 300.  These  high-performance  chips,  targeted
initially at the high performance workstation and server markets,  significantly
outpace the competition.

"Alpha microprocessors have consistently  hit  and  often  exceeded  performance
targets and delivery times since their introduction more than three years  ago,"
stated Ed Caldwell, vice president, Digital Semiconductor, a  Digital  Equipment
Corporation business. "The  Alpha  architecture  is  designed  to  deliver  high
performance in every generation and  design  upgrade.  Today's  announcement  by
Digital is an example  of  how  we  are  able  to  push  each  successive  Alpha
generation to ever greater performance levels."


Setting Industry Records

Today's announcement  shows  the  significant  performance  advantage  of  Alpha
microprocessors. The Alpha 21164-333MHz processor significantly outperforms  all
other currently shipping  or  sampling  chips.  It  performs  integer  intensive
applications 1.7 to 2.9 times faster and floating point  intensive  applications
1.6 to  3.2  times  faster  than  any  available  competitive  processors.  This
difference is due in  part  to  Digital  Semiconductor's  advanced,  world-class
manufacturing process and semiconductor design capabilities, which allow Digital
to deliver a processor at a record-setting 333 MHz. Both the Alpha  21164-333MHz
and  the  Alpha  21064A-300MHz  microprocessors  are  sampling   now   and   are
pin-compatible with previously announced versions. They enable easy  enhancement
to existing systems.


Chips Shipping/Sampling Today

	   Digital   Intel      SGI       HP	   Motorola  Sun
           Alpha     X86        MIPS      PA-RISC  PowerPC   SPARC
	   21164     P6		VR4400    7200     604	     UltraSPARC
	   333MHz    133MHz     250MHz    120MHz   133MHz    167MHz

SPECint92  400 est.  200 est.   175       168.7    176       240 est.
SPECfp92   570 est.  200 est.   178       269.2    157       350 est.


Digital Semiconductor, a Digital Equipment Corporation  business,  headquartered
in Hudson, Massachusetts, designs,  manufactures  and  markets  industry-leading
semiconductor products including Alpha microprocessors and PCI peripheral  chips
for  networking,  bridging,  and  graphics/multimedia,  as  well  as   low-power
StrongARM microprocessors under license from Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. Digital
Semiconductor operates design centers in Hudson, Palo Alto, California;  Austin,
Texas; and Jerusalem, Israel. A new, $450 million fabrication facility in Hudson
will begin revenue production in 1996. Mitsubishi Electric Company is  a  second
source for Alpha microprocessors.

Digital Equipment Corporation  is  the  world's  leader  in  open  client/server
solutions from personal computing to integrated worldwide  information  systems.
Digital's scalable Alpha platforms, storage, networking, software and  services,
together  with  industry-focused  solutions   from   business   partners,   help
organizations compete and win in today's global marketplace.

                                      ####

Note to Editors:  Digital, Digital  Semiconductor,  and  the  Digital  logo  are
                  trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation.

                  SPECint  and  SPECfp  are  trademarks  of  System  Performance
                  Evaluation Corporation.

                  Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.

     		  SGI and MIPS are registered trademarks  of  Silicon  Graphics,
                  Inc.

                  HP  and  PA  are  registered  trademarks  of   Hewlett-Packard
		  Company.

                  PowerPC is a registered trademark  of  International  Business
                  Machines Corporation.

                  Sun is a registered trademark and UltraSPARC is a trademark of
                  Sun Microsystems, Inc.

                  StrongARM is a trademark of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd.

CORP/96/047
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