To the OpenMPE Community,

I want to take this opportunity to provide another update on items of
interest to the OpenMPE community.  As with my April update, I'll start
with some general HP e3000 news items.

    * In May, Jeff Vance posted vCSY's responses to the 2004 System
      Improvement Ballot.  Seven of the top 15 tactical items are In
      Plan, two others have usable, scripting workarounds, and work has
      already begun on several of the In Plan items.  As we indicated
      earlier, we will be providing you with another SIB update at HP
      World in August.

    * MPE/iX Release 7.5 PowerPatch 2 is now available.  The Communicator
      for this release, located at
      http://www.docs.hp.com/mpeix/pdf/30216-90352.pdf ,
      describes several recent capability enhancements to MPE/iX,
      including Host-based DTC Management, High-Availability FailOver/iX
      (HAFO) support for Fibre Channel disk arrays, and limited support
      for Ultrium tape on MPE/iX.

Next, I'd like to update you on one element of the end-of-life roadmap,
the conversion of used HP 9000s to HP e3000s.  We reopened this item in
April at the request of the OpenMPE Board of Directors and began the
investigation in May.  To provide a framework for our investigation, we
defined the objective as "helping to meet the platform hardware needs of
HP customers whose businesses depend on increasing the performance and/or
capacity of their existing HP e3000s in a marketplace with limited
availability of HP e3000 systems."

We have decided that, under very select circumstances, HP, or an HP-
authorized channel, will perform the conversion of a used HP 9000 into an
HP e3000.  We will only consider such conversions on a case-by-case basis
when HP determines that a customer or partner has a business critical
need, and there is a clear shortage of used HP e3000 systems within
resale channels to meet that need.  The types of conversions will be
limited by the availability of parts after HP ensures an adequate supply
of parts to meet current and future HP 9000 and HP e3000 customer support
obligations.  Conversions may be limited to A- and N-Class systems, with
a limited potential for 9x9 conversions.

More information on this topic can be found in an FAQ that will be posted
tomorrow at
http://www.hp.com/products1/evolution/e3000/info_library/faq1.html .

Finally, we continue to encourage all customers to plan their transitions
off the HP e3000 by the end of 2006.  Customers who find themselves in a
situation where they cannot buy a used HP e3000 to meet their growing
business needs should contact HP.  We will work with you to try to help
you resolve your business need.

That's it for now.  I look forward to talking with you at HP World in
Chicago.

Regards,
Ross McDonald, MPE/iX R&D
Director of Engineering