"I agree with the Clawhammer and silly part, but if Compaq and HP decide not to use Itanium, then what's left? I would expect the two companies by now to have a great deal of infrastructure invested in Itanium, and if the merger goes through, that's even more of a reason why the two might combine their Itanium efforts to really make a killing with it in the "enterprise" market (or whatever you prefer to call it)."
First, I have no idea "what's left"...I wasn't addressing that scenario at all. I don't think either plans to abandon IA-64, which is why I said "even if the merger falls through."
Second, your "even more of a reason" argument is odd...of COURSE that's a reason for the merger. Who would think otherwise? I certainly never implied otherwise.
(BTW, this whole point has a "deja vu" feeling to it...I remember almost exactly the same arguments being made by some here a few months ago.)
Bottom line, I expect H-P will use IA-64 regardless of the merger plans (unless Walter Hewlett wins completely and H-P decides to concentrate on inkjet cartridges exclusively). If the merger fails, I would expect Compaq to be scrambling to figure out its next generation strategy, but probably also it would use IA-64. It has a strong networking technology, derived from the VAXCluster work it did many years ago, and which it continued into Alpha and Linux.
--Tim May |
