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/