Mohan: enjoyed the article very much.
Here is something that is interesting.
August 2, 1999
Hewlett-Packard Sees Its Future as an
E-Commerce Revolutionary
By JOHN MARKOFF
ALO ALTO, Calif. -- In the computer industry, power comes not from the barrel of a gun but from the interface of a protocol. And no one may be more aware of that right now than Rajiv Gupta, a 36-year-old Hewlett-Packard computer designer, who for years has seen how the Microsoft Corp.'s control of a series of software protocols, or technical formats, has made Microsoft the dominant force in the computer industry.
Gupta is now leading an ambitious Hewlett-Packard effort to establish a comparable edge in Internet-commerce technology with a set of programming protocols called E-Speak. The E-Speak initiative is perhaps the most crucial part of a sweeping makeover by Hewlett, which is intent on transforming itself from a stodgy maker of computers, printers and test equipment into a 21st-century Internet services
company.
If he succeeds, even by Silicon Valley standards Gupta will have proven
to be something of a wunderkind. He came to Hewlett-Packard at age
28 in 1991, fresh out of graduate school as an expert in processor design
and software compilers -- software that translates the programmer's
instructions into machine code. Until three years ago, his principal role
was as the technical lead designer for the joint Intel-Hewlett IA-64
microprocessor project -- the chip that became the Merced, on which
the Intel Corp. is banking its post-Pentium future. The E-Speak software
project was still only a sidelight.
But when the IA-64 chip design left the lab to be turned over to a
development team, Gupta shifted his full attention to pursuit of his
E-Speak vision.
And now, even if the IA-64 chip design ultimately becomes Intel's
technical standard-bearer, Gupta contends that E-Speak has the
potential to make a bigger impact. |
