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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Engel who wrote (99084)	2/15/2000 1:07:00 AM
From: dmf	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Paul, Re: Intel redirected, DEFINITELY worth the read! Gwenapp believes that giving IT executives a choice between a proprietary box from Sun or IBM and an Intel box offered by multiple suppliers will change things. "Above and beyond technology is the business model," says Gwenapp. "If an IT manager buys Sun e4000s, they just married Sun. If price-performance gets out of line or Sun falls behind, they are in trouble. [But] if they don't like what Compaq is doing, they have Dell or IBM." Of course if Compaq, Dell or IBM ...and countless others... all are dependent on Intel chips, it seems that the IT manager is marrying Intel. Yes, the boxmakers can compete but they are all waiting for those Itaniums or McKinleys or whatever. I think I'd feel better if Intel just said they were going to compete with Sun without acting like they are doing the world (the IT managers) such a favor. Am I just warped because I've been trying to juggle SUNW and INTC too long? As an INTC investor, I think Intel puts its strategy and vision out for the public as well as any company, maybe better. What if the customer wants Solaris on IA/64? Would Intel refusing to support Solaris be seen as a little heavy handed? If you want our chips, you can't use Solaris. Maybe I should do my thinking first and posting later. No more till I get a good night's rest! dmf BTW I am a big fan of Intel posters. Wish they would some available to investors! Not just the Congratulations poster, but an assortment. Good graphics.

To: Paul Engel who wrote (99084)	2/15/2000 1:43:00 AM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 186894

Sparks to fly between Intel and Sun over Sparc chips BY TOM QUINLAN Mercury News Staff Writer PALM SPRINGS -- A quiet dispute between Sun Microsystems Inc. and Intel Corp. could erupt publicly later this week when Intel officials are expected to take Sun to task for failing to adequately support the next generation of Intel processors. Sun makes the most popular version of Unix, a heavy-duty operating system that Intel would like to see available for its upcoming Itanium chips. Intel claims Sun is favoring its own Sparc chips over the 64-bit Intel chips, also known as IA/64 processors. Over the past two years, the sale of Sparc systems has grown dramatically because of Internet demand, said Tom Henkel, a research director for the market research firm the Gartner Group. ''Sun, looking at the current situation, is taking the position of 'Why help the Intel platform when we really don't have to?' '' Although Sun jumped on the IA/64 bandwagon three years ago when it promised to develop a version of its Solaris operating system that would run on Intel's 64-bit processors, Santa Clara-based Intel is now complaining that Sun's support is lukewarm at best. ''They're not really serious about supporting the Intel platform,'' said Paul Ottelini, the executive vice president in charge of the Intel Architecture Group. ''They say they'll support it, but they won't make the investment or commitment needed to do that.'' Sun denied that it has reduced support for the Itanium chips. Anil Gadre, vice president and general manager of Solaris Software at Sun, said Ottelini's comments come as a stinging surprise and beg the question of what will happen to customers who have agreed to run Solaris on IA/64. 'A hell of a valentine' ''This is a hell of a valentine to get today,'' said Gadre. ''This is not in the interest of the market.'' The breach between the two Silicon Valley companies comes just as Intel is almost ready to ship the first of its Itanium processors, which Intel hopes to make the standard when it comes to the powerful computers that manage data and communications for corporations and the Internet. At the Intel Developers Forum here -- the kick-off for Intel's marketing push for the new line, which is expected to be introduced in July -- Sun's name has been dropped from the list of companies that are supporting the Itanium architecture. And while Sun might not be mentioned by name, it will be an obvious target of Ottelini's keynote here Wednesday, when he intends to contrast the traditional hardware-specific approach of Unix vendors to the more neutral approach Intel and its numerous allies will take when Itanium debuts. But the dispute can, and probably will, escalate beyond a mere war of words. Intel will honor its contractual obligation to Sun to help develop a version of Solaris for the first Itaniums, Ottelini said. ''But after that, we won't be working with them on future versions of IA/64.'' One immediate impact of the decision is that companies that have already said they would use Solaris on their IA/64-based systems -- including Fujitsu, Siemens, NCR and Unisys -- will be presented with a difficult choice. They can either use Solaris when Unix variants the first IA/64 processors roll out, or they can scramble to try and develop systems that use a different version of Unix. IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co. are both developing Unix variants for IA/64 right now. ''I don't know what Intel is planning to tell these customers who have all concluded that Solaris with IA/64 technology was the better base to attack the enterprise market,'' said Gadre. It could also present a situation where Intel will no longer use its $250 million Intel Developers Fund -- established to help companies develop software for the IA/64 line -- on Solaris-related projects. It's a dispute that holds risks for both companies. When Sun announced that it would support IA/64, Intel was able to brag that it had the support of every major operating-system vendor for its new processor, giving the chip an immediate aura of invincibility. But a 12-month delay in introducing the first chip, coupled with Sun's lukewarm support for Intel and strong sales of Sun's own Sparc-based servers, makes Intel's ultimate success with Itanium a little more questionable, Henkel said. ''Sun is doing very well selling Solaris on Sparc,'' he noted. ''(Sun's) support for IA/64 always seemed more like a safety valve play rather than them looking at it as a real market opportunity.'' Widespread support Still, even without Sun, Intel has the support of every other major computer manufacturer. And the same market forces that encouraged Sun to announce support for IA/64 in the first place -- Intel's ability to deliver powerful processors at a lower cost -- are still in force, assuming that Intel can deliver on its promises. ''With IBM investing heavily, and HP investing heavily with HP/UX, the risk Sun faces here is that it's misjudged the marketplace,'' Henkel said. ''If Sun decides in a year that it really needs to support IA/64, they could be behind their rivals. I think that's a calculated risk on Sun's part.'' Contact Tom Quinlan at tquinlan@sjmercury.com or (408) 271-3667.