Extending its lead as the PC workstation market and performance leader, Hewlett-Packard has introduced new HP Kayak XU and XW PC Workstations that feature Intel`s latest processors and chip sets, and deliver exceptional power, unmatched expandability and innovative system features. The unrivalled performance of these new systems enables customers such as design engineers, digital-content creators, software developers and financial analysts to improve productivity and creativity dramatically while managing ongoing costs. "HP attains the industry`s fastest PC-workstation performance through superior graphics and system technologies and creative new features," said Thierry Boulanger, HP marketing manager, PCs and networking. "These new workstations target our most demanding customers, who expect - and get - leadership performance and innovation from HP." Based on Intel`s powerful new 350MHz and 400MHz Pentium II processors, Intel`s 440BX AGPset and a 100MHz front-side bus, the new workstations are optimised for maximum performance. With dual-processing capability and support for multitasking and multithreading, the systems offer users up to 50 percent system performance. In addition, the new 100MHz front-side bus operates at 1.5 times the clock rate of existing designs, alleviating the memory bandwidth bottleneck associated with increased processor speeds. The workstations also feature CL2 ECC SDRAM memory, the most advanced in the industry, and expandability up to 1GB, the maximum supported by Intel`s 440BX AGPset. Targeted at software development engineers, system and LAN administrators, 2-D digital-content-creation animators and 2-D mechanical designers, the HP Kayak XU PC Workstation features the world`s fastest hard-disk drives - Fast Wide Ultra SCSI 10,000 rpm 4.5GB or 9GB Seagate Cheetah drives - and optional second-generation HP FastRAID technology. The new systems also feature dual, independent dual and independent Fast Wide Ultra SCSI controllers to provide peripheral connectivity without sacrificing ultimate I/O performance. The Matrox Millennium II AGP video card , now with 8MB of video RAM, delivers the sharpest images, the highest 2-D resolutions and the industry`s fastest overall 2-D performance. These new systems, which earned the top scores on recent test results published by the Business Applications Performance Company (BAPCo), complement an existing entry-level 3D configuration with ELSA Gloria Synergy graphics, based on 3Dlabs Permedia-2 technology. HP Kayak XW PC Workstations provide professional OpenGL 3-D graphics power for applications such as mechanical design automation and digital-content creation while delivering leading 3-D graphics performance. A new top-of-the-line configuration features the world`s fastest 3-D graphics with the HP VISUALIZE fx4 subsystem, including a new multithreaded software driver to leverage dual-processor configurations. A new midrange configuration features the AccelECLIPSE II graphics card from AccelGraphics. The new HP Kayak XU and XW PC Workstations feature HP MaxiLife, an embedded monitoring system that includes a LCD display mounted on the systems` front panel. This LCD delivers hardware-monitoring messages, failure-prevention warnings and status reports. HP MaxiLife maximises uptime and reduces support costs by proactively monitoring key system components to detect any system errors and prevent system failure through constantly updated diagnostics. Its complete independence from the system bus allows diagnostics and monitoring even when major components such as the CPU and RAM are unavailable, or when no OS is running. It complements HP DiagTools, the diagnostics module of HP TopTools. All new models are expected to be available in June 1998.
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