Hewlett-Packard Co.`s Spectrum computers, scheduled to be introduced Tuesday, appear to be somewhat faster than had been expected, and could help the company recover momentum in the highly competitive minicomputer market, according to analysts and other sources familiar with the products.
But the first of the products is not expected to be delivered until late in 1986, meaning that Hewlett-Packard could still lag behind its competitors somewhat, these sources and analysts said.
The first two of the long-awaited Spectrum machines, products that Hewlett has described as the most important in its history, are expected to be formally announced at a press conference. The products, which will be based on a new concept in computer design, will set the direction for the company`s computer strategy for years to come.
Success with Spectrum, which is a code name, is crucial for Hewlett-Packard. Computers account for more than half of the Palo Alto, Calif., company`s $6.5 billion in revenues, and Hewlett has had trouble bringing out a new generation of computers to replace its 13-year-old line of HP-3000 minicomputers, the mainstay of its product line. The machines process 16 bits of information at a time, while most competitors have long since introduced super-minicomputers that can process 32 bits at a time.
Hewlett-Packard customers, who cannot easily switch to another brand of computer without rewriting all of their software, have been clamoring for more power. If Hewlett stumbles with Spectrum, which has already been delayed, it could lose customers.
The two new machines are more powerful additions to the 3000 product line. The first, called the 3000 Model 930, will use readily available semiconductor chips and will have about three to four times the raw speed of the existing top of the line, the HP-3000 Model 68, which is generally rated at slightly more than 1 million instructions per second. Hewlett-Packard is expected to say the new machine will have a top speed of 4.5 million instructions per second. Analysts had expected the machines to be able to execute 2 million to 3 million instructions per second.
However, raw speed alone can be a misleading indicator. In actual operation, Hewlett is expected to claim that the new Model 930 will perform only twice as fast as the existing Model 68. The new machine is expected to be available for general delivery in the fourth quarter of 1986.
The second machine, the Model 950, will be based on more sophisticated semiconductor technology. It will have a maximum raw speed of 6.7 million instructions per second and in actual operations will perform at least three times as fast as the Model 68, the company is expected to report. But this machine is not expected to be available until 1987.
The price is still not known, but Adam Cuhney, an analyst with Kidder, Peabody & Co., expects the price of Model 930 to be about $300,000, roughly equivalent to machines sold by the Digital Equipment Corp. for a similar level of power.
For customers who cannot wait for Spectrum computers, Hewlett is also expected to introduce a more conventional upgrade to the 3000 family, known as the Model 70, which sources say will be up to 35 percent faster than the Model 68.
The Spectrum machines are based somewhat on a design concept known as reduced-instruction set computing, or RISC. RISC machines are said to be fast because they are kept simple and streamlined, rather than loaded with options.
