Alpha 21164 Microprocessor Streaks To 600Mhz, Sets New
                              Industry Performance

                New Motherboard Enables High-End Desktop Designs

 
MAYNARD, Mass., March 31, /PRNewswire/ -- Digital  Equipment  Corporation (NYSE:
DEC) today increased  the  performance  advantage  of  its  Alpha microprocessor
family by announcing a faster, 600MHz version of its Alpha 21164  microprocessor
for workstations and servers.

The new Alpha 21164-600MHz chip, with a  peak  execution  rate  of  2.4  billion
instructions per second (BIPS), delivers an estimated 18.0  SPECint95  and  27.0
SPECfp95, the industry's top figures for both RISC and CISC processors.  Samples
are available now from Digital Semiconductor, a  Digital  Equipment  Corporation
business.

A new, ATX-form-factor motherboard, the AlphaPC 164LX,  to  support  the  latest
Alpha processors, was also announced.  The  AlphaPC  164LX  motherboard  enables
OEMs to create Alpha workstations and servers,  using  standard  components  for
high-performance Windows NT applications such  as  visual  computing,  computer-
-aided design, financial analysis, and Internet servers. The AlphaPC 164LX board
will be available in the summer of 1997.

 
Best Performance for Servers, Desktops

"Reaching 600MHz demonstrates the performance leadership that was built into the
Alpha  architecture,"  said  Tim  Miller,  Digital   Semiconductor's   strategic
marketing manager for Alpha products. "With this month's announcements,  Digital
offers the industry's top-performing microprocessor -- the Alpha 21164-600MHz --
for servers and workstations, and best price and performance in  the  Windows NT
desktop market with the Alpha 21164PC chip." The Alpha  21164  product  family's
superior floating point performance enables it to handle the algorithms required
for graphics and motion video. These top-performing chips push  the  performance
envelope  for  visual  computing  applications  such  as   video   conferencing,
modeling, video editing, multimedia authoring, image rendering, and animation.


New Motherboard for Rapid System Design 

The AlphaPC 164LX motherboard enables rapid design  of  systems  using  standard
components such as synchronous DRAM memory  modules,  PCI  option  cards,  power
supplies and enclosures, and the Windows NT  operating  system.  The  new  board
accommodates Alpha 21164 microprocessors operating  at  speeds  from  400MHz  to
600MHz and supports 2MB of synchronous SRAM level 3 cache memory over a  128-bit
data path. Four PCI slots (two 32-bit, two 64-bit) and two ISA  expansion  slots
are included along with normal system support functions. Windows NT ARC firmware
supports installation of Windows NT 4.0 software.

Digital expects to announce personal workstations  based  on  the  Alpha  21164-
-600MHz microprocessor in the near future.

Digital Semiconductor, a Digital Equipment Corporation business headquartered in
Hudson,  Massachusetts,  designs,  manufactures  and  markets   industry-leading
semiconductor  products  including  Alpha  microprocessors  and  PCI  chips  for
networking, bridging, and multimedia, plus low-power  StrongARM  microprocessors
under license from Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. Mitsubishi  Electric  Corporation
and  Samsung  Electronics  Company  Ltd.  are  alternate   sources   for   Alpha
microprocessors. Web site: http://www.digital.com/semiconductor or  800-332-2717
for more information.

Digital Equipment Corporation is a world leader in open client/server  solutions
from personal computing to integrated worldwide information  systems.  Digital's
scalable Alpha and Intel 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: Digital, Digital Semiconductor, DIGITAL FX!32, OpenVMS,  and  the  Digital
logo are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. Windows  is  a  registered
trademark and Windows NT is a trademark of  Microsoft  Corporation.  SPEC  is  a
registered trademark of System Performance Evaluation  Corporation.  UNIX  is  a
registered trademark in the U.S. and other countries,  licensed  exclusively  by
X/Open Company Ltd. StrongARM is a trademark  of  Advanced  RISC  Machines  Ltd.
Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.

SOURCE:  Digital Equipment Corporation
    -0-                      3/31/97

/ CONTACT: Lois Marie, 508-568-6225 or Marianne  Mills,  508-568-5102,  both  of
Digital Equipment /