The context there was Compaq sold some of the highest-end PC systems, they were into 386/486, servers, UNIX, SMP, rackmount, RAID, etc, "IBM wouldn't sell you this stuff". So, reading between the lines there, Compaq ran into this problem first and 'fixed-it' in a backwards compatible way.

(Compaq had a fantastic reputation which they tarred with shitty consumer PCs. HPE still sells Proliants, and I'd guess they still use 'compaq screws'.)