COMPAQ CONTINUES TO SATISFY DEMAND FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE PENTIUM-BASED PCS
AND SERVERS

HOUSTON, December 15, 1994 -- Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE: CPQ) has
been thoroughly examining all available data and studies relating to the
flaw in the Intel Pentium microprocessor. The company has decided to
continue shipping Pentium-based PCs and servers to satisfy those customers
who require the higher level of performance offered by the Pentium. "In
fact, our examination has only reinforced our belief that the vast
majority of our customers are unlikely to encounter the flaw in their
calculations. For those who are affected, we will work with them to
replace the Pentiums in their Compaq PCs," said John Rose, Senior Vice
President and General Manager, Desktop PC Division, Compaq Computer
Corporation.

"Our approach is to help our customers evaluate their situation, reassure
them that we will replace the Pentium processors if they are affected by
the flaw, and provide some software tools to help them in the meantime,"
Rose said.

Recent reports in the news media and in the worldwide on-line
communications services (Internet, CompuServe, Prodigy and America On
Line) have indicated concern over a flaw in all current Intel Pentium
microprocessors. The flaw is in the "floating point unit" (FPU) of the
microprocessor and can have an effect on combinations of certain numbers
divided by certain numbers. The flaw does not affect non-numeric
applications like word processing, but has some possibility of error for
numeric applications like spreadsheets, engineering, and graphics. Because
of the remote likelihood of dividing one of the affected pairs of numbers,
even users doing extensive spreadsheet calculations will rarely be
affected.

As soon as early news of the Intel Pentium flaw began to appear in
November, Compaq reached into its extensive research and development
resource pool to dedicate a "tiger team" of experienced software and
hardware engineers. They were tasked to leverage their unique
understanding of hardware and software integration to understand the
nature of the flaw and to develop interim software tools that can allow
customers to evaluate their situation and continue to use their Pentium
PCs in most applications.

The Compaq software tools -- with different implementations for different
operating environments -- effectively disable the Pentium FPU. The tools
can then be used to determine the extent to which the customers'
applications use the flawed floating point operations and -- where
appropriate -- enable the use of software floating point libraries to
perform floating point calculations. Most applications affected by the
Intel Pentium flaw can use these available software libraries (instead of
the Pentium FPU) to perform floating point calculations.

Based on its own research and testing, Compaq is also publishing
informational reports to help customers evaluate the Intel Pentium flaw
and its implications to their applications. These reports and software
tools will be available from the public Compaq forums on CompuServe and
the Internet. Each will be released and posted as soon as possible. (The
software tools have been tested on Compaq PCs only, and they may or may
not work with other PC brands. Other customers should call their own PC
manufacturers for information and support.)

Customers with other questions or concerns may call the Compaq Technical
Support Hotline at 800-345-1518. Compaq will help them evaluate their
potential problems and make sure their concerns are addressed adequately.

Company Background

Compaq Computer Corporation is a world leader in the manufacture of desktop
and notebook personal computers, and servers. Founded in 1982, the Company
reported 1993 worldwide revenues of $7.2 billion. Compaq products are sold
and supported in more than 100 countries through a network of more than
31,000 Compaq marketing partners. Compaq also sells directly to customers
through Compaq DirectPlus at 800-888-5858. For Compaq Customer Support and
Information, call 800-345-1518.

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