A letter from Jesse Lipcon

October 5, 1999

Dear Valued Customer,

We want to be sure that you, our highly valued, long-standing VAX customer, are apprised of the direction we are taking with the VAX products. There is little doubt that the VAX platform has served your business well but many companies are now requiring faster and more powerful systems to run their business and to stay competitive. We have extended the VAX CPU technology as far as possible. Most VAX customers are already taking advantage of 64-bit Alpha technology and the continuing leadership enhancements to the OpenVMS operating system on the Alpha platform, thus protecting their investments in application software and training. As technological trends continue to surge forward, we have had to take a close look at the VAX business. Thus, due to the rapidly diminishing demand for VAX hardware, and the associated business viability, Compaq will be announcing last order and ship dates* for its VAX hardware products.

You can rest assured knowing that Compaq Customer Services and its certified service partners will continue to support VAX customers worldwide with a full range of preventive, performance optimization, and remedial services. Compaq is positioning its support structure to continue to offer VAX/VMS support for at least the next ten years, through 2010. Of course, we reserve the right to reposition these services as the business demands change but ample notice will be issued to our customers before any changes to these support offerings are made. However, note that Compaq continues to support PDP-11 products that have been retired for many years

Also, Compaq OpenVMS Engineering will continue to develop new versions of OpenVMS VAX software. The primary focus will address mixed architecture cluster support with new OpenVMS Alpha releases. Most new OpenVMS functionality, including the exciting new Galaxy Software architecture, and Windows NT and Internet integration, will be delivered on OpenVMS Alpha. If your plans include moving applications to either Compaq ProLiant or Alpha-based systems, Compaq and its certified service partners offer a full range of migration support services that will help to protect your IT investments and avoid disruption in your production environment.

Compaq Application Integration and Migration Methodology and Service are available to support customers wishing to build new enterprise and Internet applications; to migrate applications to new technology; and/or to use middleware technology to breathe new life into legacy applications. Services include migration assessment, planning and design, rapid prototyping, integration, testing, and deployment.

The Compaq Solutions Alliance program is also available to provide support to ISV's who have not yet migrated their applications to Alpha. Membership enables access to porting centers, technical support and significant discounts on development equipment.

We are proud of the milestones that VAX products have brought to the world of computing. In an environment where computer technology becomes outdated in three to five years, VAX technology is still the heart of many businesses. VAX systems have been a 20-year industry standard in reliability, scalability, data integrity and continuous computing 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Compaq will continue to support your needs with OpenVMS products, services, and solutions. You can continue to count on the OpenVMS operating system to offer superior 24x365 application computing, where its resilience, availability and disaster tolerance will remain unmatched for the full range of Alpha products.

There is no question that VAX technology was an industry leader that set precedence for computing excellence. We have enclosed the 20th anniversary book that depicts the history and many accomplishments of this successful and innovative technology.

If you have specific questions, please contact your account representative or business partner. We are committed to ensuring the success and ease of your transition as you move forward.

Sincerely,

Jesse Lipcon
Vice President, High Performance Server Division
Compaq Computer Corporation

*Model	Last order date	Last ship date
VAX 7000 Model 800	No Supply	No Supply
VAXstation 4000 Model 96	September 30, 1999	December 31, 1999
VAX 4000 Model 108	September 30, 2000	December 31, 2000
MicroVAX 3100 Model 88/98	September 30, 2000	December 31, 2000

*Dates based on current material availability.