IBMS INTELLISTATION Z PRO RAISES NEW STANDARDS in 3D Submittedperformance By: Pleon Friday, 19 March 1999

IBMS INTELLISTATION Z PRO RAISES NEW STANDARDS IN 3D SubmittedPERFORMANCE by: Pleon Friday, 19 March 1999

- Features Intel's Pentium III Xeon processor and new graphics... IBM today announced its newest Windows NT** based workstation, the IntelliStation Z Pro. Designed for customers with the highest 3D application demands and the largest data sets, the IBM IntelliStation Z Pro features Intel's new dual Pentium III Xeon*** microprocessor running at 500MHz and 550MHz (1). The highest performance member of the IntelliStation family, the IntelliStation Z Pro features industry-leading graphics enhancements, such as the IBM Fire GL1 (2). The system also features the Intense 3D Wildcat 4000 graphics adapter that provides customers with an incredibly realistic on-screen appearance for such activities as complex modelling and product simulation. According to a recent IDC report, the NT workstation market grew 140 per cent Worldwide last year, making it the fastest growing segment of the PC market. "We are setting a new standard for high-performance NT workstations, in such application areas such as Web-authoring, mechanical-aided design, video-editing, high-end business applications and financial services," said Billy O'Riordon, Intellistation Brand Manager, IBM PSG UK and Ireland. "We've incorporated IBM technologies in the Z Pro that no competitor can match." Offering advanced standards-based technologies, the new IBM IntelliStation Z Pro has been optimised for an extensive portfolio of supported applications, such as PRO/Engineer, CATIA/CADAM, Allegro/Cadence, Maya/Alias Wavefront and KOBRA/Reuters. Enhanced Graphics The combination of IBM IntelliStation Z Pro and Intense 3D Wildcat 4000 graphics is providing a jolt to current benchmark scores. The Z Pro delivered a Pro CDRS score of

Page 1 over 25 (3), the highest score ever published (4). In comparative tests, the IBM IntelliStation Z Pro graphics solution was over three times faster than Compaq, 68 per cent faster than Hewlett Packard, and 16 per cent faster than Dell (5). The Intense 3D Wildcat 4000 graphics adapter includes: · Accelerated graphics port (AGP) 2X with sidebanding-based geometry engine; · Separate 200MHz 3D rasterisation engine; · 16MB of frame memory; · 128-bit graphics engine; · Full OpenGL 3D engine with ICD; · 64MB of texture memory. The IBM IntelliStation Z Pro is also available with IBM's newly developed Fire GL1 graphics adapter. The Fire GL1 is a first for IBM - the fully-integrated, 256-bit OpenGL 3D, AGP solution is optimised for advanced graphics on the IntelliStation Z Pro. In a recent benchmark test, the new IBM IntelliStation Z Pro with Fire GL1 graphics outperformed 3D solutions from Compaq by 97 per cent, Hewlett Packard by 81 per cent and Dell by 24 per cent (6). "IBM's newest IntelliStation featuring the Intense3D Wildcat graphics and the Pentium III Xeon processor is another example of IBM's commitment to deliver cost-effective, performance-driven solutions to the CAD/CAM/CAE market," said Bill Carelli, Vice President of Marketing, Structural Dynamics Research Corporation. "Coupled with I-DEAS, this solution will provide users with the performance and functionality they need to address the most complex design, simulation and data management tasks. We continue to be very impressed with the Windows NT workstations being delivered by IBM." IBM IntelliStation Z Pro Technology The IBM IntelliStation Z Pro incorporates industry-leading

Page 2 technologies in a mini-tower form factor, with an IBM-designed system board and BIOS. The drivers have been optimised for new Pentium III Xeon floating point instructions and memory streaming, which will help customers take advantage of the new microprocessor's power. The IBM IntelliStation Z Pro features: · 100MHz front side bus and full speed L2 cache; · Up to 2GB (7) of 100MHz ECC SDRAM; · Dual ported Ultra 2 SCSI with bus mastering capability; · Ultra 2 SCSI drives at 7,200 or 10,000 rpm; · Seven full-length slots: one AGP, five PCI and one ISA/PCI shared slot; · Seven expansion bays (four open), with 91GB of HDD capacity. Manageability Recognising that the purchase price is but a fraction of their overall costs, many customers will appreciate the unique IBM Universal Manageability tools built into the IntelliStation Z Pro, including Universal Management Agent*, IBM Wake on LAN* and Alert on LAN* (8), System Migration Assistant, LANClient Control Manager*, SMART Reaction*, and Asset ID* (9). Pricing Estimated reseller prices for the new IBM IntelliStation Z Pro, Pentium III Xeon, 500MHz, start at 1964.00 UK Pounds (10). Further pricing details are available upon request. Ref: 99/078 About IBM A pioneer in personal computing, IBM continues to lead the industry with complete solutions that dramatically improve network manageability, lower system administration costs and increase business productivity. All IBM PC products are

Page 3 backed by the company's unsurpassed Worldwide customer support and service network that delivers consistent results in more than 160 countries. The world's largest information technology company, IBM holds thousands of patents Worldwide, benefiting its customers with more research breakthroughs than the rest of the industry combined. For more information visit the IBM IntelliStation web site at http://www.pc.ibm.com/europe/intellistation Editor's Notes: *Trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp. ** Trademark or registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. *** Trademark or registered trademark of Intel Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners (1) MHz only measures microprocessor internal clock speed, not application performance many factors affect application performance. (2) Fire GL1 is a trademark of Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc., and is used under license. (3) IBM IntelliStation Z Pro, dual 500MHz with Intense3D. (4) Open GL website is www.specbench.org. (5) Independent test results as of January, 1999. Visit www.specbench.org for complete price/performance results (the lower numbers reflect the higher or better score). Measured against Viewperf 6.1: ProCDRS-01. Configurations: IBM IntelliStation Z Pro, dual 500MHz with Intense3D Wildcat 4000; Compaq SP700, 450MHz with Powerstorm 300; Dell Precision 610, 450MHz with Intense3D 3400GA, and Hewlett Packard Kayak XW, 450MHz with fx6. (6) Independent test results as of January, 1999. Visit www.specbench.org for complete price/performance results (the lower numbers reflect the higher or better score).

Page 4 Measured against Viewperf 6.1: AWadvs-02. Configurations: IBM IntelliStation Z Pro, dual 500MHz with Fire GL1; Compaq SP 700, 450MHz with Powerstorm 300; Dell Precision 610, 450MHz with Oxygen GMX2000 and, Hewlett Packard Kayak XW, 450MHz with fx6. (7) GB means billions of bytes when referring to hard drive capacity. Accessible capacity may vary. (8) Alert on LAN and Wake on LAN are solutions developed by the IBM/Intel Advanced Manageability Alliance that help you manage and protect networked computers. (9) Asset ID allows your computer to be "scanned" by various radio frequency emitting devices which must be purchased separately from independent companies. (10) Estimated reseller price only. Resellers set their own prices, so actual prices may vary. All prices exclusive of VAT. Media Contact: Billy O'Riordon Intellistation Brand Manager IBM Personal Systems Group UK & Ireland 01256 343161 oriordw@uk.ibm.com Or Michael O'Connell or Emma Thompson on behalf of IBM 01753 790700 moconnel / [email protected] Customer Contact: IBM PC Response Centre on 0870 6010136

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