IBM partnership names new operating system

After two years in development Project Monterey has finally born fruit with the launch of the AIX 5L operating system.

The project was launched in a blaze of glory in 1998 as a joint venture between IBM, Intel and SCO to produce a cross-platform operating system to be the future of Unix.

The project's name has been changed from Project Montery to AIX 5L to reflect that the resulting OS takes IBM's current high-end AIX operating system to another level, according to IBM.

AIX 5L will run on both IBM's Power platform and Intel 32bit and 64bit processing technology. IBM says it will also interoperate with the Linux OS which means that Linux applications will work with AIX 5L without much modification.

IDC analyst Kirsten Ludvigsen said the fact that the AIX 5L was named after IBM's existing OS reflects that the company must have been involved with the lion's share of development. "People will definitely be very interested by the potential of this - especially if it turns out to be an easy way to integrate Linux. However the name may deter non-IBM customers from buying in to it", she added.

Since the project's launch Sequent has been submerged into IBM and SCO'c part of the project is now owned by Linux vendor Caldera.