Award-Winning AMD Athlon™ XP Processors Power Up Northeast Utilities

— Fortune 500 energy provider chooses Compaq D315 Business Desktop powered by AMD processors —

SUNNYVALE, CA -- 11/19/2002 -- AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that Northeast Utilities, a Fortune 500 diversified energy company, has chosen and started to deploy the AMD Athlon™ XP processor-based Compaq D315 Business PC from HP as its desktop platform. Installation of the new platform at Northeast Utilities began in late October.

“Northeast Utilities’ decision to standardize on an AMD processor-based platform further demonstrates that enterprises recognize our commitment to deliver customer-centric innovations,” said David Somo, AMD’s vice president of worldwide strategic accounts. “We continue to listen to customers, such as Northeast Utilities and focus on delivering technology that helps solve real business problems for businesses and IT managers. By working with our world-class partners, we have developed a business PC platform without compromise.”

The Compaq D315 Business PC addresses the demand from businesses for more choices in the market and the AMD Athlon processor architecture has become a trusted solution for enterprises looking for high performance and reduced total cost of ownership. A great example of this is the AMD Athlon processor’s design. By using a single socket standard for more than three years, PCs require less software image management, which helps keep ongoing system management costs under control.

“With about two million energy customers in New England dependent on Northeast Utilities, all of our key business processes rely on IT. Therefore, compatibility, performance and stability were critical in our decision process,” said Edward F. Peczynski, director of information technology, Northeast Utilities. “Further, lower ongoing costs due to fewer desktop image changes will significantly lower our total cost of ownership over the next year beyond just the initial acquisition cost.”

In addition to the AMD processor architecture features that help IT managers reduce cost of ownership, the Compaq D315 Business PC features innovative Double Data Rate (DDR) memory technology, driven by AMD, which provides improved memory performance for enhanced productivity. The Compaq D315 Business PC also includes the world-class NVIDIA® GeForce2™ graphics, which provides exceptional screen resolution, and the NVIDIA nForce™ processor platform using HyperTransport™ technology to reduce data movement bottlenecks.

All AMD processors are Microsoft® Windows® Hardware Quality Laboratory-qualified and are extensively tested for compatibility with thousands of business applications, including the most popular office productivity suites. The Compaq D315 Business PC featuring the AMD Athlon XP processor 2200+ is available today in the Americas from HP. For more information about the Compaq D315 Business PC, visit www.compaq.com/products/desktops or call 1-800-282-6672.

About the AMD Athlon™ XP Processor The AMD Athlon XP processor features QuantiSpeed™ architecture, 384KB of on-chip, full-speed cache, and support for AMD's 3DNow!™ Professional instructions for enhanced multimedia capabilities. The AMD Athlon XP processor is compatible with AMD's Socket A infrastructure, and supports advanced 266 & 333 front-side bus speeds. AMD Athlon XP processors are manufactured using AMD's 0.13-micron copper process technology in Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany.

About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor’s 500 company, produces microprocessors, Flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of $3.9 billion in 2001. (NYSE: AMD).

About Northeast Utilities
Northeast Utilities (NYSE: NU) is a Fortune 500 diversified energy company located in Connecticut with operations throughout the Northeast. Through its competitive and regulated subsidiaries, NU provides a full range of energy products and services to millions of residential and business customers from Maine to Maryland. From delivering electricity and natural gas, to marketing energy commodities, to operating and maintaining power plant facilities, NU is committed to safety, reliability and expanding consumers' energy options. For more information on Northeast Utilities and its subsidiaries, visit the NU family of Web sites at www.nu.com.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Athlon, 3DNow!, and combinations thereof, and QuantiSpeed are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. HyperTransport is a licensed trademark of the HyperTransport Technology Consortium. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions. GeForce2 and nForce are trademarks and NVIDIA is a registered trademark of NVIDIA, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions. Other product names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.