press release

HP Elected as Supporting Member of Eclipse Open Source Consortium

Company Continues to Lead Promotion of Heterogeneous Environments and Open Source

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 25, 2002

HP (NYSE: HPQ) today announced that it has been selected as an Eclipse board member. Supported by a consortium of member companies, Eclipse is an open source community that creates interoperable technology, establishing a universal platform for tools integration.

As the fifth largest software provider in the world, HP has long supported open standards and designs and manufactures software products that readily address multi-platform environments. Further engaging developers toward that end, HP will add its own experience and expertise to help expand the reach of the Eclipse developer tools framework to include a rich management fabric. HP executive Michael Rank will serve on the Eclipse Board of Stewards.

"We're thrilled to join Eclipse and serve on its Board of Stewards, working with other industry leaders to establish and promote open standards that benefit the software development community and customers," said Rank, general manager, HP Developer Resources Organization. "Our participation will aid the creation of software solutions for today's business needs, including important technology that allows real-time management and optimization of IT assets from an integrated tool environment. Because HP steadfastly supports multiple environments, our views fit perfectly with Eclipse's charter."

Eclipse-based tools give developers freedom of choice in a multi-language, multi-platform, multi-vendor supported environment. Eclipse saves companies time and money with a plug-in based, developer tools framework that makes it easier to create, integrate and use software tools. Integrated development environments, tools and new features plug in to extend the core Eclipse Platform. Commercial support and offerings made with Eclipse technology are available from multiple sources for a variety of development platforms and deployment targets ranging from embedded computers to mainframes.

"Eclipse is delighted to welcome HP to this leadership role," said Skip McGaughey, chairperson of the Eclipse board. "HP's long-standing commitment to open standards and its support for multiple computing environments further strengthens the Eclipse open source community. In addition, HP's expertise in infrastructure management software will add significantly to the community's strength in addressing all aspects of developing software solutions, from application design and development to deployment and management."

HP plans to offer integrated developer tools frameworks based on Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET for the integration of targeted development and management tools. This support will enable developers to leverage an integrated development "cockpit" from which they can quickly and seamlessly integrate other Eclipse and Visual Studio-based tools into their development environments, thereby accelerating the design, development and deployment of manageable Web services and enterprise solutions based on HP technology. For HP, the future of application development lies at the intersection of Java™ and .NET interoperability.

About HP

HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP completed its merger transaction involving Compaq Computer Corp. on May 3, 2002. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that the market for the sale of certain products and services may not develop as expected; that development of these products and services may not proceed as planned; and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to HP's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 30, 2002 and reports filed subsequent to HP's annual report on Form 10-K, as amended on January 30, 2002, for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2001. If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes or any of these assumptions proves incorrect, HP's results could differ materially from HP's expectations in these statements. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.