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HP bets on next-generation Itanium

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CIOL Bureau
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With the first generation of Intel’s IA-64 microprocessor, the Itanium, having largely flopped due to bugs and long delays in getting the chip to market, Hewlett-Packard, Intel’s partner in the Itanium development project, is now banking on the second-generation IA-64 chip, developed under the code-name McKinley.



HP this week said it has scrapped plans to resell high-end, Intel-powered Unisys servers and workstations because the McKinley will be ready sooner than anticipated. HP’s worldwide marketing manager for Intel-based servers, Jean-Jacques Ozil said that despite the current softness in computer sales, the market for fast network computers remains strong.



The second-generation Itanium chip is now expected to be ready for pilot use late this year and production systems will hit the market in 2002. Unisys has been successful in getting computer houses to resell its Intel Xeon, 32-bit-based servers. Ozil said HP has decided it would be better to wait until the new Itanium-based systems are available.



"You don't want people spending millions of dollars on this kind of equipment and leave them holding the bag 18 months later because you've got a new better, hotter technology. In the window of time we were looking at for the 32-way, IA-64 is becoming a better alternative from an investment protection alternative. The 32-way was for next year."



Hewlett-Packard’s Itanium systems will run both the Unix, Linux and Windows 2000 operating systems.

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