PALO ALTO, CA - HP (www.hp.com) has introduced an entry-level workstation featuring the new dual-core Intel Pentium D processor for greater performance on multi-threaded software. The HP xw4300 workstation has a starting price of $849 and offers increased memory support of up to 8GB of memory capacity and up to 667MHz memory bandwidth. The system also offers integrated Serial ATA 3.0Gb/s (SATA 3.0Gb/s) RAID functionality more commonly found on higher-end workstation and server platforms.

The HP xw4300 will be offered with 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows XP Professional. The system?s 460-watt power supply can support powerful processors and graphic applications, giving customers significant increases in productivity now and headroom to expand later.

The workstation is based on Intel?s single- and dual-core Pentium processors, with speeds of 3.2GHz for the Intel Pentium D 840 dual-core processor and 2.8 - 3.8 GHz for the single-core Pentium 4. The Pentium D processor 840 incorporates two physical processors and L2 caches into one piece of silicon, helping give a significant performance boost to multi-threaded applications. Customers can expect up to 20 percent performance gains in these application environments with the dual core processor.

Also incorporated is the Intel 955X Express chipset, a high-end performance chipset for fast, dual-channel DDR2 667-MHz memory; large 8 GB memory capacity; PCI Express (x16) graphics; integrated Serial ATA controller with RAID 0/1/5/10 capability; integrated, high-definition audio; and 64-bit support.