Gareth Jones, AC Nielsen: Why does it cost more to support HP 3000 systems compared to HP 9000 systems?

Martino: Prices are being reviewed. There are some differences; more is bundled with the HP 3000, e.g. the IMAGE database.

Jeanette Nutsford, Computometric Systems: What are HP’s plans for computer languages on HP 3000 PA-RISC machines and IA-64?

Sterling: We have identified the languages that are critical and are working on IA-64 versions.

Chris Merkin, Fisher Rosemount: How can the capabilities in release 5.5 of MPE get ahead of 6.0?

Sterling: A lot of customers are staying on MPE/iX 5.5 for the time being. This is because they have tested 5.5 for Y2K compliance and will have to retest everything if upgrading to 6.0. New functionality is being added to 5.5 as well as to 6.0 to keep the two versions aligned, so it is possible that some features could come out on 5.5 first.

Chris Gee, Rosebys: What future is there for Oracle on the HP 3000 if Version 8 is not to be be ported to the HP 3000?

Sterling: It was a business decision not to port Oracle 8. It costs between £1 million - £2 million to do a port, so it is a major activity that takes resources from other projects. Oracle had not seen a major adoption on the HP 3000.

Frank Rogers, Britax Rumbold: One way of increasing numbers of applications available for the HP 3000 would be to promote the use of POSIX-compliant systems. Where, if anywhere, can users obtain a list of POSIX-compliant applications suitable for the HP 3000?

Sterling: Oracle used Posix functions for its port. There are Samba and Apache ports, for example. [He mentioned that he had been asked about bundling Allbase with FOS. He said he will consider it.]

Alan Yeo, Affirm: Have there been many people (particularly in the UK) who have taken up the special Series 918DX deal on development systems that you mentioned last year?

Martino: There were two last month and three others recently. Peter Hill from Riva noted that they had shipped three or four systems in the last couple of weeks. Christine also mentioned that the SPP had been expanded to include 3 additional mid-range models.

Geoff Brown, MTL: Are there any plans to tie the management of the HP 3000s into Openview ( or the new Network Console) so that I can manage my HP 3000s in the same way as my HP 9000s?

Sterling: Yes. We are working on bringing up the OpenView toolset with the HP 3000.

Graham Headleand, Rosebys: If the HP 3000 is still a ‘strategic’ platform within HP, then how is that most of the time when you send an HP engineer to fix my system, I get the impression that this is the first time he has seen an HP 3000, let alone knows anything about it?

Sterling: The HP 3000s don’t go wrong so much, and there is a much larger installed base of HP 9000s.

Kim Dorrington, Bernstein: We see every year a decline in the number of fellow HP 3000 users here in the UK. Is this happening all over the world or just in the UK?

Martino: There has been a small decline in the historical base, but smaller than in previous years. The base is back-filling with new customers.