Unix shakeout looms
www5.zdnet.com
A shake-out is threatening Unix vendors, and many are voluntarily abandoning their wares by the roadside in anticipation of leaping aboard Intel Corp.'s next-generation chip bandwagon, the IA-64, or Merced.
Merced is due in server systems in the second half of next year. It is likely to become a common server building block of both the Internet and intranet, produced in volume by Intel but running 64-bit versions of Unix. Merced will channel the Unix vendors onto a shared processor platform, resulting in a need to compete for volume Intel server-based customers.
One sign of how fierce the competition will be was Sun Microsystems Inc.'s signing up of Europe's leading Unix vendor, Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems Inc., as a Solaris customer last week. Siemens offered its own flavor of Unix, 32-bit Sinix. It now is switching to Solaris rather than creating a 64-bit version for Merced.
In the past, Sun competed most with Solaris on Sparc, its own hardware architecture, and was viewed as only a marginal player on Intel. Siemens Nixdorf gives Sun a volume outlet for Solaris on Merced, something it has lacked on past Intel chips, according to analysts.
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