Intel Corp (INTC)

[SemiconEng]

The Solaris on Itanium discussion stalls again

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/11/intel_sun_solarium/
IDF Fall '04 Everyone has seen the pictures of Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy laughing with Microsoft Chief Steve Ballmer. The two executives tried to portray an image of pleasant compromise and newfound respect. If, however, you thought a similar respect between Sun and Intel was developing around Solaris on Itanium, you'd be wrong.

Sun's President Jonathan Schwartz recently resurrected the notion of the Solaris operating system running on Intel's 64-bit Itanium processor. His reference to the odd pairing stirred up old buzz and lead some to believe that Solaris on Itanic may actually happen. Instead, conversations last week at the Intel Developer Forum have confirmed that Sun and Intel are still mired in a political squabble that puts Solaris' future on Itanium in doubt.


Unfortunately, I heard there's bad blood behind the scenes on this whole Solaris/Itanium mess. The way I heard it, It apparently developed way back, when Sun originally announced they would not support Solaris on Itanium. AFAIK, at the time, intel used quite a bit of Solaris on their Fab Manufacturing Platforms, they wanted to move those systems to 64bit, and when Sun made their Itanium announcement, intel had no choice but to move all those systems over to other vendors, primarily Sun's competitor Microsoft. All of the Manufacturing systems..... except for VMS..... everywhere.

Imagine what a PITA that would have been for intel, switching operating systems as well as 32/64 transition. And I don't know how much licensing revenue Sun would have lost there, but I'd guess it was probably a bundle. The story, if true would explain why it looks to me like these companies hate each other, and that probably neither company has yet gotten over it. On the other hand, you know how these stories are, part truth, part BS., but never the less, an interesting bit of "trivia" IMO. In any case, IMO, unless Itanium customers demand it, I wouldn't be surprised if Solaris on Itanium never sees the light of day.