HP Professional sp750 Compaq Professional Workstation SP750 and AP550 Key Tech - Page 15

WHITE PAPER (cont'd) Compaq Professional Workstation - Key Technologies AGP Pro The latest extension to the AGP specification is AGP Pro. The AGP Pro specification defines an extended interface connection that was designed to deliver additional electrical power to workstation class graphics accelerators; this is accomplished by adding more power pins on both ends of the standard AGP connector, as well as a corresponding AGP Pro slot in the system. In addition, the AGP Pro specification requires a compliant system to have compatible thermal handling characteristics and two PCI slots adjacent to the AGP Pro connector. These PCI slots can then be used by the AGP Pro graphics accelerator for additional electrical or mechanical purposes. This would provide a compelling benefit in the instance where a graphics solution is made up of two or more boards. AGP Pro does not increase performance over and above the AGP modes mentioned previously; however, it does allow more flexibility in the design of higher performance graphics accelerators by providing more power. Only the AGP ATX form factor is defined in the AGP Pro specification, NLX is not defined. One additional point of note is that an AGP graphics accelerator can be supported in an AGP Pro slot; however, an AGP Pro graphics accelerator cannot be supported in an AGP slot. Workstation Software Platform Interoperability Customers who have already made the move to Windows NT, or are planning to, can be assured that Compaq's Interoperability Program provides seamless integration with applications and information on existing networks. Compaq has partnered with the best integration ISVs in the industry to deliver a broad range of high-performance interoperability solutions for Windows NT, UNIX, and Macintosh. Compaq and its partners perform joint testing to ensure ease and compatibility for a wide variety of operations, such as application access, resource access and sharing, distributed application execution, systems administration, porting and migration, internetworking, and mail. Once the right set of tools have been selected from Compaq's Interoperability ISVs, the ability to access networked information from the Windows NT desktop includes the following application examples: UNIX applications, UNIX OpenGL 3D applications, IBM applications, and files resident on UNIX network File System (NFS). The Compaq Interoperability Program provides the right set of solutions for a heterogeneous enterprise environment. 15