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Paul
Take this to the bank
Sun Micro in Solaris deal with NCR
Reuters Story - August 04, 1997 20:05
%US %DPR %BUS INTC MSFT SCOC HWP DELL SUNW NCR V%REUTER P%RTR
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Bu Samuel Perry
MENLO PARK, Calif. (Reuter) - Sun Microsystems Inc. said
Monday NCR Corp. has agreed to couple the next generation of
Sun's Solaris version of the Unix operating system with NCR's
most powerful computer models.
The deal will make NCR's WorldMark 4300 server model a
reference platform for Sun's new Solaris system, enabling NCR
to help Sun optimize Solaris on Intel Corp.'s next
generation of microprocessors, due out in 1999.
The new processors, codenamed Merced, will be based on a
more powerful architecture which can process 64 bits of data at
a time, double Intel's existing 32-bit processors.
Sun Microsystems Chief Executive Officer Scott McNealy said
Sun is committed to expanding the use of Solaris on Intel's
computer chips, and NCR would now play a lead role in its
effort to ensure Solaris runs well on Intel. Solaris is a high
powered operating system that controls the basic functions of
computers, ranging from workstations to network servers.
Sun, based in Palo Alto, Calif., sells its own UltraSPARC
processors through a separate division, and analysts said the
collaboration with NCR will help Sun hedge its business
strategy at a time when Microsoft Corp. is pushing its
Windows NT system as a Unix substitute.
"It's a safety valve," said David Wu, an analyst at ABN
AMRO Chicago Corp. "This is is Scott McNealy making sure that
whatever happens, Solaris runs on (Intel's) X86."
Sun executives said the deal was its most significant to
date with a computer partner which will sell the Solaris system
with its Intel-based machines in an original equipment
manufacturer (OEM) deal.
"This is not the first Solaris-Intel OEM agreement, but
it's probably the most exciting and important one we've had to
date," said McNealy. Brian Croll, a marketing director at Sun,
said it was the first strategic Solaris on Intel partnership.
McNealy and Croll said the deal was part of an effort by
Sun Microsystems to position Sun's version of Unix as a leading
high-end system which can compete with Windows NT but also can
interoperate with the Microsoft product.
Unix has had a fractured history, with many different
versions of the system since it was first created by Bell
Laboratories in the early 1970s. NCR has been using a version
most recently distributed by Santa Cruz Operation .
Hewlett-Packard Co. , based in Palo Alto, Calif., is
an intense rival of Sun in the Unix area. Sun years ago forged
an alliance with Intel to enable the new Merced chips to run
both HP's own HP-UX version of Unix and Microsoft's systems.
Analysts said Sun's alliance with NCR, which is focussed on
the powerful computers known as servers that connect individual
computers with other resources like printers and data storage,
may help it blunt HP's strategy.
The move may also mark an evolution for McNealy, who until
recently argued few companies based on the so-called Wintel
platform of Intel and Microsoft have enjoyed sizeable returns
-- an assertion undermined by the nearly 8-fold rise in Dell
Computer shares over the past year.
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