HP becomes Intel ally

HP engineers responsible for developing the server chipset have been transferred to Intel under a technology alliance to accelerate the adoption of Intel's Itanium processor.

The group estimated around 100 engineers will be needed to work on technology for Itanium - the 64-bit server chip designed to compete against Unix/RISC servers from Sun Microsystems.

HP primarily markets servers based on its PA-RISC chips, but the company plans to migrate to the Itanium platform over the next couple of years.

Through the acquisition Intel will expand its server intellectual capital, a market that requires companies to have expertise in multiprocessing, intricate input-output subsystems and other technologies.

In June, Intel entered a similar agreement with Compaq, where Intel acquired a license for Compaq's Alpha chip, and most of the Alpha engineering team.