Compaq Unveils Aggressive New Workstations

Compaq Computer Corp. Corp. Monday unveiled two powerful workstation models just seven months after entering the market for high-end desktops based on Intel processors and Microsofts Windows NT.

The new products, offered at prices below what some in the industry had expected, represent another aggressive move by the PC maker, which Dataquest said captured second place in the Windows NT workstation market in the first quarter.

Shares of Compaq rose 87.5 cents to $103.875 in consolidated trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Workstations are powerful, number-crunching computers used on the desktops of engineers and graphics designer.

For years, the machines have been the domain of companies like Sun Microsystems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Digital Equipment Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Silicon Graphics Inc.

 

But while those systems have been based on various proprietary products and customised implementations of the Unix operating system, Windows NT and speedier Intel processors are shifting the market toward cheaper, high-volume technology.

For example, Compaq said its new Compaq Professional Work-station 6000, configured with a 17-inch monitor at an estimated street price of $13,018, outperforms in benchmark tests a Sun Ultra 2-2300, priced with monitor at $38,295. Compaq said its Intel Pentium II-based 6000 model line was available now starting at $4,200, while its Compaq Professional Worksta-tion 8000, equipped with two Intel Pentium Pro processors, will be available next week starting at $11,400.

Compaq also said it was also reducing the price of its 3D models of its original Professional Workstation 5000, introduced in late October, by up to 18 per cent.

John Rose, senior vice president of Compaq and general manager of its Enterprise Computing Group, said the company expects to exceed its goal of shipping 100,000 workstations within the first 12-15 months after it entered the business.

Rose said the companys higher-end, so-called enterprise computer business accounted for 29 per cent of Compaqs revenues in the first quarter, comprised mostly of powerful server computers that run networks of workstations. With the help of the new workstation lines, Compaq plans to increase this business to account for 50 per cent of Compaqs revenues by the year 2000, Rose told Reuters in an interview.

The enterprise is clearly strategic, Rose said.

Peter ffoulkes, an analyst at market research firm Dataquest, said Compaq in its first full quarter of NT workstation delivery ranked second in the market after Hewlett-Packard.

per cent, and second-ranking revenue market share, with 24.9 per cent after Intergraph Group Inc.s 25.3 per cent.

This was a remarkable performance for a company with no prior established workstation business, he said.

Although foulkes said it was premature to predict more than potential Windows NT workstation market leaders, NT-based workstations made up 23.6 per cent of overall workstation unit shipments and 12.4 per cent of the overall workstation industrys nearly $3.5 billion in first quarter-revenues.

BRUSSELS, June 10 (Reuter) - Shares in Belgian information technology services firm Real Software were indicated sharply higher on Tuesday, their first day of trading on the Brussels bourses second-tier double-fixing cash market.

The stock was quoted at a bid/ask of 2,500 Belgian francs at 0940 GMT, down slightly from earlier indications of 2,600, but well above the 1,500 franc issue price.

Its offer of 420,000 shares was oversubscribed 12 times, the company said in May.