Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 06:20:48 -0500 From: "Larry S. Marso" <larry@marso.com> To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: SCO is Intel's premier Unix OS Message-ID: <19981110062048.D6799@marso.com>
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At least it's not Linux.
Monterey: Intel's premier Unix OS
By Deni Connor
Network World, 11/09/98
Somers, N.Y. - Intel's
endorsement of The Santa
Cruz Operation's UnixWare
as the premier Unix
operating system for Intel
processors can only help
solidify the place of Unix in
users' future operating
system plans.
Intel has blessed an
initiative, dubbed Project
Monterey, that will lead to
several new versions of Unix.
The first is a flavor of SCO's
UnixWare for 32-bit
processors from IBM and
Intel that incorporates IBM
DB2 and MQSeries
middleware and is currently
available. Future releases of
this version will add IBM's
AIX operating system
technology.
IBM also will take current
UnixWare technology and
incorporate it into future
versions of AIX to create a
second flavor of the Project
Monterey platform.
The third Unix operating
system will be for Intel's
IA-64 Merced processor,
which is expected out in
mid-2000. IBMand Intel
have created a multimillion
dollar fund to spur software
development for this version
of Unix.
"The net result is that this
operating system is
positioned to be the leading
Unix operating system on
the Intel architecture," says
John Miner, vice president
and general manager of
Intel's Enterprise Server
Group.
While SCO, IBM and
Sequent are united behind
this initiative, the biggest
winners are users of Intel
processors.
"Intel is billing this initiative
as the premier Unix
operating system
environment to move to
Merced," says Brad Day,
senior analyst with Giga
Information Group in
Norwell, Mass. With Project
Monterey, users will be able
to choose from three
versions of Unix, depending
on the hardware
architecture they have
selected, and will have an
increased variety of Unix
software and applications.
Intel benefits from having
"yet another operating
system supplier pledge
support for its platform,"
says James Gruener, senior
analyst for NT servers at
Aberdeen Group in Boston.
"IBM was one of the major
holdouts with AIX. By now
coming forth with this
software . . . there could be
crossover from customers
who eventually move from
the RS/6000 to IA-64,"
Gruener says.
Whether users will see
UnixWare as an alternative
to Windows NT depends on
several things, he says.
"There is the timing involved
when 64-bit UnixWare
arrives vs. when 64-bit NT
will be available.
The second issue is that
customers have to choose
whether they want a Unix
environment based on IBM's
legacy AIX or Microsoft's
NT, which has larger
independent software
vendor support," Gruener
says. Further, he says that
Microsoft may not have the
background in 64-bit
technology that IBM
research already has.
Project Monterey would be
further strengthened by
participation of other
vendors, such as Compaq
and Dell.
Subo Guha, director of
product marketing for Dell's
Enterprise Systems Group,
says, "The good news is that
a lot of the enterprise-class
Unix versions have been on
Reduced Instruction Set
Computing boxes. This
announcement is bringing
more robust Unix features to
the Intel architecture."
While Dell won't commit to
one Unix architecture over
another, it will continue to
support Unix features that
run on Intel architectures.
A number of software
companies, including
Netscape, the SAS Institute
and Novell, have also
committed to delivering
applications for Unix on
Merced. Among the
hardware manufacturers
that will use the new Unix
software are Acer, Motorola
Computer Group and Unisys
Computer Systems.
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