HP and Microsoft Alliance Continues to Drive Productivity in High-Performance Computing

PALO ALTO, Calif., and REDMOND, Wash. — June 25, 2007 — HP and Microsoft Corp. today announced an extension of their worldwide sales and marketing agreement that addresses the high-performance computing (HPC) market.

The companies have come together to drive high-performance computing into the mass market by delivering supercomputing clusters that are easier to deploy, support and manage for enterprise and midmarket customers.

The extension of the alliance entails a multimillion-dollar investment by both HP and Microsoft, and includes HP selling Microsoft® Windows® Compute Cluster Server (CCS) 2003 direct and via reseller channels as part of the HP Unified Cluster Portfolio, which is supported on HP ProLiant servers, HP BladeSystem and HP Cluster platforms.

“High-performance computing is poised for continued strong growth, averaging over 20 percent a year for the last four years, with HPC standards-based clusters growing at even higher rates. End-users are looking for easy-to-use systems and will likely go with vendors that can provide an easy transition from their desktops to HPC servers,” said Earl Joseph, program vice president, IDC, an industry analyst firm. “The HP and Microsoft partnership to provide Windows Compute Cluster Server on ProLiant and Blades platforms has the potential to address these key user requirements and enable more customers to take advantage of HPC technologies. Many users, especially desktops users, are already familiar with the Windows environment, and this partnership provides an easy transition to an HPC solution.”

The combination of Windows CCS and HP Servers enables users to effortlessly expand their compute capabilities and easily tap into the power of clusters. Windows CCS is designed specifically to make HPC clusters easier to design, integrate and manage within organizations so employees are more productive.

HP enhancements to Windows CCS include custom installation scripts and documentation that greatly streamline deployment. The optional HP Message Passing Interface and InifiBand drivers offer increased scalability and performance in applications that require high-speed, low-latency communications. Using HP’s custom installation kit for Windows CCS, a customer can realistically expect to have a 64-node cluster deployed and running within two hours.

“We see the addition of Microsoft as an important part of our Unified Cluster Portfolio program,” said Winston Prather, vice president and general manager, High Performance Computing, HP.

As part of the alliance, HP and Microsoft have established technology centers in Houston and Grenoble, France, for customers and independent software vendors. The technology centers provide a venue for benchmarking, testing and validating applications on HP servers based on AMD and Intel processors running Windows CCS.

“By working collectively with HP, an industry leader in HPC, and Microsoft, the world’s leading software provider, ANSYS is providing our customers with access to the most productive and powerful engineering simulation solutions available,” said Chris Reid, vice president of marketing at ANSYS. “ANSYS software is a valuable tool for anybody making fundamental design and engineering decisions, and our joint solutions with HP and Microsoft allow those decision-makers to stay focused on innovation instead of lengthy IT deployment.”

Recently, Microsoft and ANSYS agreed on worldwide sales and marketing initiatives focused on joint solutions for the manufacturing industry. As part of these initiatives, ANSYS worked through the Microsoft and HP technology center to port, performance-tune and conduct benchmarks with its ANSYS® 11 and FLUENT® 6.3 CAE applications and the 64-bit Windows Server® platform.

“Microsoft is making long-term investments in HPC to help the community collaborate on innovative solutions that can accelerate the pace of discovery and insights,” said Bill Laing, general manager of the Windows Server Division at Microsoft. “Microsoft’s work with HP and ANSYS will deliver greater productivity and performance so they can tackle today’s most complex, technical computing challenges. Our long-established relationship with HP, and strong reseller channels, will enable us to bring HPC solutions to enterprise and midmarket customers.”

More information about HP high-performance computing is available at www.hp.com/go/hptc. Further information about Microsoft high-performance computing is available at www.microsoft.com/hpc.

About HP

HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers – from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure, HP is among the world’s largest IT companies, with revenue totaling $97.1 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended April 30, 2007. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.

This news advisory contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning expected development, performance or market share relating to products and services; anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the achievement of expected results and other risks that are described from time to time in HP’s Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to the risks described in HP’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended Jan. 31, 2007. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

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