Hewlett-Packard released the following news item Wednesday, April 26, 1995.
 
              HP TO REPAIR WORKSTATIONS AND SERVERS
             AFFECTED BY MANUFACTURING-PROCESS FLAW
 
                  Problem Has Been Corrected;
          Impact on Small Percentage of Certain Systems
 
 
     PALO ALTO, Calif., April 26, 1995 -- Hewlett-Packard
Company today announced that it has discovered and corrected a
manufacturing-process flaw that affects the behavior of a small
percentage of HP 9000 workstation models currently installed at
customer sites.  The same flaw may affect a small percentage of
HP 9000 and HP 3000 servers as well.  The vast majority of HP's
workstations and servers are not affected by this
manufacturing-process flaw.
 
 
     The flaw can result in inconsistent system behavior, that
is, with a "system machine check" message or data corruption in
fewer than 20,000 HP systems worldwide.
 
 
     HP is advising customers of potentially affected systems to
immediately contact the HP Response Center or their local sales
office for further information and direction.  If it's determined
that a system is affected, HP will incur the costs associated
with repair or replacement.
 
 
     HP said it does not expect this issue to have a significant
financial impact on the company.
 
 
     From customer reports and HP's own testing, the company said
a limited number of individual units of HP 9000 Model 735/125 and
755/125 workstations -- including cluster configurations -- were
found to be affected.
 
 
     Certain other HP workstations and servers also use parts
manufactured by this process, although to date, there have been
no reports of problems from customers of the following systems:
 
     o    HP 9000 Model 735/99, 755/99, 747i/100 and 745i/100
          workstations shipped or processor boards replaced since
          November 1994;
 
     o    HP 9000 G/H/I model 50, 60 and 70 servers shipped or
          processor boards replaced since October 1994; and
 
     o    HP 3000 987/RX/SX, 987/150/RX/SX and 987/200/RX/SX
          servers shipped or processor boards replaced since
          October 1994.
 
 
     Still, HP will test systems that it believes could be
affected and which already have been shipped to customers.
 
 
     In affected systems, the inconsistent system behavior noted
is triggered by a particular instruction sequence contained in
some software and executed by some PA-7100 and PA-7150
microprocessors using specific data patterns.
 
 
     "We have determined the root cause of the problem and are
once again manufacturing and shipping systems that meet HP's high
quality standards," said Willem P. Roelandts, senior vice
president and general manager of HP's Computer Systems
Organization.  "As always, customer satisfaction is our absolute
highest priority, and our teams are working extremely hard to
ensure that those customers who have an affected system are
satisfied by our corrective actions."
 
 
     Customers in the United States and Canada with potentially
affected systems should contact the HP Response Center by calling
1-800-500-1176.
 
 
     Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global manufacturer of
computing, communications and measurement products and services
recognized for excellence in quality and support.  HP has 98,200
employees and had revenue of $25 billion in its 1994 fiscal year.
 
 
 
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