In Summary

• HP recognizes that there is a 'curve' to the speed of a new product's adoption. Often times, it's defined by the willingness of the Early Adopter and Early Majority segments to take on a new technology. Only after the technology is proven will the mass market follow.

• The difference between the two crucial segments of Early Adopters and the Early Majority lies in how critical their needs are for computing power. Early Adopters tend to be in the fields of science and research, while Early Majority users are typically in the more commercial fields such as Telecommunications, Financial Services and Manufacturing.

• High Performance Technical Computing (HPTC) is the kind of intense, heavy math based computing that is done by most Early Adopters.

• Itanium-based systems are ideally suited for conquering HPTC needs due to their ability to handle Floating Point mathematics with performance and precision. This speed and precision comes from the ability to handle 64-bit numbers and to reduce 'rounding error'.

• Itanium-based systems adoption is predicted to spread into Technical Computing Environments at a rapid pace, outselling RISC beginning in 2003 or 2004.