Sun and Intel go head-to-head over Itanium

Sun Microsystems has dismissed Intel's Itanium strategy, claiming the processor has no proven development tools to back it up, making investment in the architecture highly risky for users.

Matthew Keep, product manager for servers at Sun, told silicon.com that Sun's Sparc 64-bit processor technology is the only viable alternative, justifying its lonely stance as the only vendor not to adopt Itanium.

Almost the entire industry is lining up to endorse Itanium, with Compaq, Dell, HP and IBM all planning to introduce Itanium-based servers, even though they may have to recompile software to handle future phases of Itanium's development.

Keep claimed Compaq's move to discontinue its AlphaServer line to introduce Itanium-based servers had caused unrest among some users of Compaq's systems.

However, Compaq said its strategy to move to Itanium is a bold one which its customers firmly support. The company's plan is to integrate Itanium over a seven to eight year period, during which time it will gradually phase out its AlphaServer line.

Tom Yates, director of high performance systems EMEA at Compaq, said this is an attempt by Sun to create uncertainty, doubt and mischief in the market place to catch some business, because it is "unable to articulate any movement in its own business".

He said Sun will be forced to adopt Itanium in two to three years' time, as it will dominate 64-bit computing.

In addition, Yates said Sun is trying to cover up its lack of openness with its own customers. "They do not know how to communicate with customers," said Yates.

However, Andrew Butler, VP at Gartner Dataquest sympathised with Sun's stance given that its strategy is built around the long-term future of the Sparc architecture. "Sun has little choice but to attack the viability of Itanium. I would be doing the same thing if I was in Sun's position," said Butler.

However, Butler said in five years time it will become difficult for Sun to fend off the growth of Itanium.

He claimed that adopting it would be hypocritical, but not adopting it could put that division of the company out of business.

"It will become difficult for Sun to keep Sun Sparc alive as an alternative to Itanium in 10 years," said Butler.

Intel flatly denied Sun's claims. Chris Hogg, enterprise business manager for EMEA at Intel, told silicon.com: "There's a plethora of applications and tools and operating systems" for Itanium chips.