The Information & Computer Systems Group of Hitachi, Ltd. (Group Director and 
CEO: Takao Kato) today announced the delivery of Hitachi's Itanium™-based 8 way 
pilot servers, which based on the Intel® pilot release Itanium™ processor 
(733MHz), to limited customers.

This delivery marks a new milestone in Hitachi's " IA-64 Preview Program ", 
previously announced on June 22, 2000, to develop Itanium™-based servers to 
address enterprise computing requirements.  By evaluating pilot systems, customers 
will assess the benefits of Hitachi's Itanium™-based server, and accelerate the 
progress of application programs'-porting and tuning onto Intel® Itanium™ processor.  
Based on these pilots, Hitachi intends to realize early releases of Itanium™
-based systems and solutions to a potential market, with the advantages and high 
performance of Intel® Itanium™processor.

The first shipment was delivered to "Ibaraki Hitachi Information Service Co., Ltd.".
Ibaraki Hitachi Information Service Co., Ltd. will port and validate their product, 
3 Dimensional Casting Simulation System ADSTEFAN* and CAE pre/post processor 
"HICAD/CADAS", on Hitachi's Itanium™-based server, and also has a plan to evaluate 
their other applications, such as impact analysis, structural analysis, compute 
fluid dynamics and so on.

*:ADSTEFAN is a casting simulation CAE system that calculates filling sequences 
and temperature changes of molten metal for quick solution of real casting 
problems.
 ADSTEFAN is developed since 1991 with the help of over 30 Japanese companies 
under the direction of Prof. NIYAMA and Assoc. Prof. ANZAI in Tohoku University.

Hiroyuki Masuda, Board Director Group Executive Engineering Business Group of 
Ibaraki Hitachi Information Service Co., Ltd. said, " We are extending 
'Digital Solution Business' with development and sales of 3 Dimensional Casting 
Simulation System ADSTEFAN and other famous CAE software.  The most important 
requirement to CAE software is how to solve a large model in a short period.  
We believe that we will be able to provide the best solution to our customers 
with Hitachi's Itanium™-based server, and also expect the superior 
performance of Hitachi's Itanium™-based server, which released to us today. "

"Intel welcomes Hitachi's shipment of pilot release version of Itanium™-based 
servers," said John Antone, President of Intel K.K., "Hitachi has helped research 
and develop Itanium™ processor-based servers from a early stage. Therefore, 
it is our pleasure to report that the company today has realized the fruit of its 
labors by commencing shipments of the robust server systems.  We believe the 
shipment of Itanium™ will give life to highly cost efficient and innovative 
e-Business solutions. We are anticipating that the adoption of e-Business to be 
accelerated as the market of Itanium™-based product grows."

Takahiko Higashi, Director of Marketing, Microsoft Co., Ltd. said, "As the shipment 
of Intel® Itanium™ pilot release and the start of HITACHI LTD's pilot preview 
program for its limited customers, Microsoft will provide Microsoft Windows 64bit 
beta (Code name: Whistler) and support the evaluation of system solution on 
Intel® Itanium™ architecture.  By cooperating this pilot preview program, 
Microsoft will obtain valuable feedbacks from HITACHI LTD's limited customers; 
as a result, Microsoft expects that the quality of the next version of Windows 
64bit will be higher."

 "TurboLinux Japan welcomes Hitachi's announcement with regard to the release 
of the Itanium™-base servers," said Kuniteru Kojima, President, TurboLinux 
Japan, K. K., "TurboLinux has been actively involved with IA-64 Linux Project 
and has made numerous contributions to the project. In October 12, TurboLinux 
Workstation Pro 6.1 was released in the US, and this latest product includes the 
first commercial version of Linux for IA-64.  TurboLinux for IA-64 comes with 
the extended functionalities in order to optimize the performance of servers and 
workstations. In addition, the SGI Pro64 compiler is scheduled to be bundled as 
a key component to the product in the near future.  TurboLinux believes that the 
newly released Itanium™-base server from Hitachi will provide the best 
solution environment as a platform for TurboLinux for Itanium™."


Trademarks and Registered Trademarks of Other Companies
Intel and Itanium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation 
in the United States and other countries.
Linux is a trademark or registered trademark of Linus Tovalds in the United 
States and other countries.Microsoft and Windows are trademarks or registered 
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in United States and other countries. 

About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global 
electronics companies, with fiscal 1999 (ended March 31, 2000) consolidated sales 
of 8,001 billion yen ($75.5 billion*). The company manufactures and markets a wide 
range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power 
and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit 
Hitachi's Web site at URL:http://www.hitachi.co.jp.
* At an exchange rate of 106 yen to the dollar.

Supervising Section
Contact: Mr. Kazuyuki Nakajima
Internet Systems Platform Division, Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi Omori Building 2, 6-27-18 Minami-ohi, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, 140-8572
Tel. (domestic): 03-5471-2637