HP Unveils Enhanced OpenVMS Operating System

PALO ALTO, CA -- HP (NYSE:HPQ) today released an enhanced OpenVMS operating system for AlphaServers that is e-business and Internet-ready. The HP OpenVMS Alpha V7.3-1 has features unmatched by the competition and delivers the high levels of reliability, availability and scalability required by today's demanding applications. HP OpenVMS Alpha V7.3-1 delivers enhanced OpenVMS Storage Area Network offerings, improved system availability, improvements in I/O and SMP performance, enhanced security, expanded ability to port UNIX applications to OpenVMS and enhanced TCP/IP stack for extended interoperability and performance. New features and enhancements to the operating system include: Extended failover capability to served devices in an OpenVMS cluster environment -- extends device failover to served devices, as well as directly attached devices. This eliminates single points of failure for served devices. Fibre channel performance enhancements -- new features such as distributed interrupts and interrupt coalescing, as well as reductions in I/O Lock8 usage, providing two times the I/O throughput on fibre channel over the previous release. Multipath tapes on fibre channel -- provides multipath capabilities for fibre channel tapes to help reduce downtime. Performance improvements for applications running on SMP systems. Expanded security with more authentication options -- integrated Kerberos support and simplified authentication through the new SYS$ACM interface. Industry standard encryption options -- OpenSSL (Secure Socket Layer) and the Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA) provide the cryptographic tools and utilities needed to deploy secure applications. UNIX portability enhancements -- enhancements in the CRTL and file system make porting UNIX applications to OpenVMS much easier. Compaq Secure Web Browser (CSWB) -- the supported browser for OpenVMS AlphaServer systems based on Mozilla, an open-source Web browser designed for standards compliance, performance and portability. Graphic Configuration Manager (GCM) for OpenVMS -- a portable, client/server application that provides a visual means of viewing and controlling the configuration of partitioned AlphaServer systems running OpenVMS which helps overall management of the partitions. Enhanced OpenVMS support for StorageWorks enterprise-class MSA solutions and SANWorks software solutions -- including EVM and new VersaStor virtualizing adapter. Some competitive advantages of the OpenVMS environment include: OpenVMS Galaxy which provides dynamic reconfiguration without rebooting; significant flexibility with partitioning and multiple operating systems supported; high availability features such as online repair and clustering for 24x365 computing; total conversion to 64-bit functionality for more than a decade while some competitors are still migrating; seamless interoperability with Microsoft® Windows NT®; and the availability of thousands of commercial and freeware applications. "This release of the OpenVMS operating system, the highest quality ever, continues to lead the competition," said Mark Gorham, vice president, HP OpenVMS Software Group. "It is further evidence of HP's long-term commitment to the millions of users around the world who value and require the performance and the expanded mission-critical capabilities from OpenVMS." HP OpenVMS Alpha V7.3-1 is expected to be available worldwide in July and will be shipping on all new HP AlphaServer DS, ES and GS series systems.