Hewlett Says Intel 64-Bit Chip Ahead of Schedule
By Peter Henderson
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp.'s (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) new chip for taking on high-end markets, called the Itanium, is moving in development faster than expected, partner Hewlett-Packard Co.(NYSE:HWP - news) said on Tuesday, explaining a change in its own strategy.
Hewlett scotched a plan to resell Unisys Corp.(NYSE:UIS - news) high-end computers powered by current Intel chips because the faster chip will be ready so soon, Jean-Jacques Ozil, worldwide marketing manager for Intel-based servers, said in a telephone interview.
The market, though soft, was no worse than expected for Hewlett-Packard's fastest network computers running on Intel chips, he added.
Hewlett-Packard is cooperating with Intel on the 64-bit Itanium chip, also referred to as IA-64, which is intended to power a new generation of high-end computers running operating systems that now require different chips, including the most popular platform for networks, called UNIX.
An Intel spokesman said the second generation Itanium chips -- the first expected to be used widely -- would be ready for pilot use late this year and systems were expected in 2002.
Success would propel Intel into the major leagues of high-end chips from its relatively humble roll as a producer of brains for desktop machines, and Hewlett-Packard hopes to jump the competition with early optimization of its software and products.
Unisys, which has seen a number of companies sign up to market its servers, was nevertheless offering an earlier generation of technology, based on 32-bit chips, Ozil said.
``You don't want people spending millions of dollars on this kind of equipment and leave them holding the bag 18 months later because you've got a new better, hotter technology,'' he said.
``In the window of time we were looking at for the 32-way, IA-64 is becoming a better alternative from an investment protection alternative. The 32-way was for next year.''
Hewlett-Packard intends to design machines based on the Itanium which would run both UNIX and high-end versions of Windows from Microsoft Corp.(NasdaqNM:MSFT - news), which like Intel is shooting for expanding into more demanding markets.
Ozil said the current market for high-end Intel-based systems was no worse than expected.
``Our high end products are the 8-way products today. For this we feel we haven't seen major softness besides what we anticipated and reflected at the beginning of the year.''
Nonetheless, market conditions did not influence Hewlett-Packard's decision, since it expected better demand for high-end servers when the new machines debuted -- and that would not be in the second half of this year.
``If you look at the kind of time frame that we had expected for the IA-64, we are not predicting any softness in the market,'' he said. |
