While it was announcing that it expected to release the first PowerPatch for MPE/iX 6.5 in September, HP mentioned that it has extended the supported life of its 6.0 release to April 30, 2002 — a four-month stretch from the prior end of support date for that OS version. On the other hand, users of the 5.5 releases of MPE/iX will soon have to commit to something newer, since December 31 of this year marks the end for the release in widest use among the installed base. HP is encouraging its customers to commit to the newer 6.5 release when moving away from 5.5. But even with the PowerPatch, 6.5 has no support for HP-IB peripheral devices and isn’t supported for the older CIO-based HP 3000 servers. HP also noted that the April 30, 2002 date is the end of the line for HP support of its 9x7 Series of HP 3000s. Third party support alternatives will be available beyond that.