I see this as good news for DELL. It will help DELL become INTC's #1 customer, if they aren't already.
Fez
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Compaq reverses plans for Unix on Intel chips
By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
September 22, 1999, 2:25 p.m. PT
Compaq has dropped its plans to convert its version of the Unix operating system to Intel's upcoming high-end processors, the computer maker confirmed today.
As expected, Compaq Computer will focus its energies on developing and marketing its Tru64 Unix only for its own chip, the Alpha, not Intel's future IA-64 family of chips. Compaq announced the move in a memo to employees today.
The decision will mirror the end of the development of Windows NT and its successor, Windows 2000, for use on the Alpha chip, a move that led Compaq to dismiss about 100 engineers.
Though Compaq says the move shows it's focusing sharply on the markets where it can stand out above its competitors, the move is an acknowledgment that it will have to scale back the grand expectations that came with the acquisitions of Digital Equipment Corporation in 1998 and Tandem Computer in 1997.
Tru64 Unix, formerly called Digital Unix, was one of several diverse and sophisticated properties the computer maker gained when it acquired Digital.
The move is a strong contrast to what some Compaq competitors have chosen.
Sun Microsystems and IBM will support their version of Unix on both their own chips and Intel's IA-64 chips. Hewlett-Packard and SGI, meanwhile, are abandoning their own chip lines over the course of the next few years as they move their versions of Unix to IA-64.
The first IA-64 chip, Merced, is due in systems in mid-2000.
Compaq is planning to cut thousands of jobs as part of a strategy to once again become profitable, but the scaled-back Tru64 development won't save Compaq money or cost Compaq employees jobs, said Tim Yeaton, vice president of Compaq's Unix division, in an interview with CNET News.com.
"We have concluded that we need to be focused...and to simplify the strategy," Yeaton said.
Dropping development of Tru64 for IA-64 wouldn't leave Compaq empty-handed for selling Unix on Intel's new 64-bit chips. Compaq has said it will sell systems with Monterey, a next-generation version of Unix that will combine "flavors" from IBM, the Santa Cruz Operation, and Sequent. |
