Computer Giants Drag Out Their Big Guns in Workstation Wars

Struggling Digital Equipment Corp. today will make its most important product announcement in years, but rivals Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems will be doing their best to steal DEC’s thunder by introducing competing machines.

The three companies plan to unveil high-powered computer workstations, compact machines that traditionally have been popular with scientists and engineers. More recently, these workstations have been cutting into sales of larger mainframe computers and desktop personal computers.

Today’s announcement is especially critical for Digital, which has been battered by financial losses the last two years. The Maynard, Mass.-based company will unveil its long-awaited Alpha computers, based on a powerful microchip that will form the core of all future DEC product lines.

Hewlett-Packard, headquartered in Palo Alto, hopes to solidify its position as supplier of the world’s most powerful workstations, even as it pushes into market niches dominated by Sun and Silicon Graphics. H-P will introduce five new machines, including a color system that costs less than $6,000. It will also introduce advanced 3D modeling and multimedia capabilities for its workstation products.

Sun, the market leader in the workstation business, will introduce a new color workstation that costs $4,295. That should make the system a viable alternative to a PC for advanced applications such as desktop publishing. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is also introducing a new service and support program to make its products more attractive to corporate computer departments.

“It’s Super Tuesday,” quipped Gary Eichhorn, general manager of H-P’s workstation group. He called the H-P product introduction “the most comprehensive announcement we’ve ever made” and said it challenges Sun, IBM, DEC and other companies.

International Business Machines, with its RS-6000 line, is a major player in the market for the most powerful workstations. IBM is working with Apple Computer to bring the RS-6000 technology to low-cost desktop machines. Silicon Graphics dominates the market for workstations that can produce 3-D effects, which are used for such things as creating Hollywood special effects and designing airplanes.

The arrival of DEC’s Alpha products--earlier than many analysts had expected--is a good omen for new DEC Chairman Robert Palmer, who replaced company founder Kenneth Olsen last month.

“The Alpha launch is remaking the company; it’s very much a make-or-break thing for them,” said Terry Bennett, an analyst with the market research firm Infocorp. He described DEC’s new products as “very competitive.”

The Alpha chip marks DEC’s entry into RISC technology, or reduced instruction set computing. H-P, Sun, IBM and Silicon Graphics already use RISC, an advanced technology that makes it possible to build much faster and cheaper microprocessors. Semiconductor maker Intel Corp. will soon come out with its Pentium chip, which will match many of the capabilities of the other RISC products.