HP Reaffirms Its Commitment To UNIX (01jun97)

June 1, 1997

We recently had an opportunity to attend Hewlett-Packard’s 1997 executive briefing for industry analysts and came away impressed with how quickly the company is reacting to the changes sweeping through the computer industry. HP seems to redefine itself more rapidly than any other major company in this industry. The three key subjects this year were the continuing explosion of the Internet/intranet, the emergence of electronic commerce as one of the growth areas of the future and the recognition that Windows NT has become a key industrial tool.

From Lou Platt (president and CEO) and Rick Belluzzo (executive vice-president and general manager of HP’s Computer Organization) on down, everyone at HP goes out of their way to emphasize that UNIX will continue to play a significant role in the company’s product line for years to come. Microsoft’s Windows NT is becoming increasingly important within the technical community, but large organizations seem reluctant to make a wholesale switch at this time.

There are two reasons for this; many engineering and information technology managers believe that UNIX is more reliable and more scalable than NT, and since the price of UNIX workstations has come down dramatically recently, few managers want to incur the pain of an operating system transition to save perhaps less than $10,000 per seat.

HP is taking a number of steps to maintain its existing UNIX business while at the same time taking advantage of the growing interest in Windows NT.

1) It has merged together the previously separate technical and commercial UNIX servers operations. The differences between the two classes of servers are fairly inconsequential today and many organizations use the same systems to support both the high-end computational needs of engineers and the data processing needs of MIS departments.

2) More significantly, HP is moving its UNIX workstation organization into the company’s Personal Information Products Group. This will facilitate providing users with a mix of UNIX and NT desktop systems. In the past, the Workstation operation has had a very pro-active industry marketing operation while the PC operation had little activity in this area. We believe that combining the two groups in one umbrella organization will result in a more coordinated product strategy for HP’s technical customers.

3) To support the blending together of the UNIX and NT worlds, HP has introduced new software products that facilitate operating mixed environments including the Enterprise File System which we discussed last month.

4) As we also described last month, HP is forging a closer working relationship with Microsoft. This relationship will be particularly important later this decade when Intel and HP release their mutually developed Merced (or I-64 as it is known in some quarters) microprocessor. That chip will require a new 64-bit version of Windows NT if it is to be successful.

Acquiring PCs In Today’s Rapidly Changing Market (01jun97)

June 1, 1997

One of the questions we frequently are asked is whether an organization should purchase new PCs now or wait since performance keeps going up and prices are coming down. Obviously, one answer does not fit all situations. The right solution depends upon the age and configuration of existing hardware and the software you are currently using or would like to use.

In general, however, we believe that architects and engineers should be provided with the latest equipment an organization can afford and that older units be moved to people with less demanding tasks. It is somewhat shocking to find that many technical people have better systems at home than they have at work.

Too many financial managers believe that they are saving their companies money when they hold off upgrading systems that have not yet been fully depreciated. It does not take a large improvement in the productivity of an professional who costs $80,000 per year including benefits to justify a new computer that might be an order of magnitude faster than what is currently being used.

The Price/Performance Explosion

The accompanying table tracks the typical PC one could buy for about $3,000 during the past five years. We have used Gateway 2000 for this data since that company has been very consistent in its product offerings. For the past decade or so, the guideline in the computer industry was that price/performance doubled every two years. Welcome to 1997 where it appears that this ratio is doubling annually. A number of factors have caused this change:

• Intel has significantly improved the performance of its microprocessors to the point where they compete effectively with all except the best RISC processors used in UNIX workstations.
• In order to maintain its market dominance, Intel has aggressively priced its new microprocessors. When the Pentium first came out, a 60-MHz version sold for nearly $1,000. Less than four years later, a 233-MHz Pentium II (see related article in this issue covering this new microprocessor and some of its competitors) sells for just $636 in similar quantities. This is nearly an order of magnitude increase in price/performance during this short period of time.
• The huge volume of PCs sold has resulted in incredible economies of scale. While less than 500,000 UNIX workstations will be sold this year, over 80 million PCs will be shipped worldwide.
• Memory costs have plummeted. Until about 18 months ago we were paying about $50 per megabyte for DRAM memory. Supply caught up with demand and prices dropped to under $10 per megabyte. Machines with 64 MB memories are readily available for less than $3,000. In many cases, a large memory can have a more significant impact on performance than microprocessor speed. Likewise, disk storage costs have also dropped like a rock.
• Graphics accelerator cards have come down in price to the point where the PC manufacturers include them in the base configuration.

Getting The Most For Your Dollar

Having spent a fair amount of time watching the PC evolve, we have a few suggestions on procuring new PCs.

• You are better off buying a system somewhat below the top-of-line and then replacing it more frequently than you would if you bought a more expensive system.
• Install plenty of memory. Most CAD and GIS packages thrive on memory and at $8 to $10 per MB, you can easily afford 64MB or even 128MB.
• Do not ignore a high performance backup device. With 3.2 GB disks commonly used today, we recommend a 4 GB cartridge tape drive.
• Buy the entire system from one source. Your time is too valuable to be spent configuring hardware and software for your computer to work.

Intergraph 3D PCs Look Very Good (01apr97)

April 1, 1997

Intergraph will begin selling very affordable 3D-oriented PCs directly to the public via an 800 "Express" number as well as the Internet beginning May 5th. Units can be pre-configured or custom tailored (typical). The distribution, prices and features of these "TD" systems are noticeably more aggressive than Intergraph’s first foray into the PC realm in December 1996.

Prices are targeted to match low-price competitors such as Dell even though all of the Intergraph machines are configured with some degree of 3D hardware acceleration. In addition, all of them also include a copy of Microsoft Office 97, 2 USB ports, and special software to better manage the PCs.

Complete pre-configured systems using a non-MMX Pentium, including monitors but not network cards, begin at $1,899. The May 5th introduction deliberately coincides with Intel’s debut of the Pentium Pro MMX, which will now be called Pentium II. Pentium Pro powered Intergraph PCs will all use that new chip. A Intergraph PC configured similar to the Tri-Star we just reviewed is expected to cost $3,099. That includes a bigger but slower hard drive than the Tri-Star.

All of the Express pre-configured systems use Intergraph’s $135 Intense 3D 100 graphics card with 4 MB of EDO DRAM and a RISC processor. That card has received rave reviews for its 3D performance in Direct 3D (a Microsoft API used widely for games) although it does not accelerate the more robust and common OpenGL API used in many design packages. Other strengths include perceptively correct textures, Gouraud shading and environment mapping. Performance in the general 2D realm is unusually stunning. The best compromise setting provides 1,024 by 768 resolution at 65k colors and an 85 Hz guaranteed vertical refresh rate.

There are at least eight other graphics options beyond Intense 3D 100, and the top four are variations on Intergraph’s Intense 3D Pro 1000. The 1000, at $1,999, supports both OpenGL and Heidi APIs for accurate 3D. Additional features include 24- or 32-bit Z buffering, trilinear texture mapping, 32-bit textures, fog, and alpha blending.

The special software for managing PCs provided by Intergraph is called Intersite. This software is desktop management interface (DMI) compliant. For very small companies and individual users, Intersite may be of marginal value. Companies with large networks and PC management staff will probably appreciate the hardware monitor software which is good for part theft deterrence as well as physical breakdown warnings. Others tools include a software driver version manager and the WatchDog rapid administrator notification system. Rounding out Intergraph’s offering are five service programs.