Compaq, Intel Link for the Long-Term
Compaq Computer Corp. and Intel Corp. have established a multi-year agreement that accelerates availability of next-generation enterprise servers based on the Intel Itanium processor family. Compaq will transfer key enterprise processor technology to Intel and consolidate its entire 64-bit server family on the Itanium architecture. The companies will work together to expand marketplace adoption of the Itanium processor family.
The technology and marketing agreement joins Compaq's systems engineering expertise and large installed base with Intel's microprocessor design and volume manufacturing capabilities. Compaq will develop a family of server products—from supercomputers to Web servers—that all operate on the single microprocessor Itanium architecture.
In accordance with the agreement, Compaq plans to consolidate it’s entire 64-bit family of servers on the Itanium microprocessor architecture by 2004. Compaq will deliver an additional generation of Alpha technology (EV7) to advance system performance prior to the new generation of the Itanium-based systems, for which the company will provide tools and support for a smooth customer transition. The company will also design and build new NonStop Himalaya systems based on MIPS chip technology until the first shipments of Itanium-based systems are available in 2004. The new family of Compaq enterprise servers will support Tru64 UNIX, OpenVMS and NonStop Kernel, and will advance the capabilities for Windows 2000 and Linux on ProLiant. Additionally, Compaq is transferring significant Alpha microprocessor and compiler technology, tools and resources to Intel.
Under the multi-year technology agreement, Compaq is transferring significant Alpha tools and engineering resources to Intel, as well as granting licenses to Compaq's Alpha microprocessor technology and compilers.
Over the next couple of years, several hundred Compaq microprocessor engineers, compiler experts and infrastructure employees will be offered employment with Intel. A portion of these engineers will remain with Compaq to complete a next-generation Alpha microprocessor development effort currently underway but will transfer to Intel as their projects are completed. Compaq's transfer of technology and resources to Intel is expected to result in an acceleration and enhancement of Intel's Itanium processor roadmap.
Compaq said it will continue to design and build new AlphaServer systems based on current and upcoming Alpha processor technology through 2003. The company plans to upgrade the current high-end AlphaServer GS Series with a 1 GHz Alpha processor this summer. The next-generation EV7 Alpha processor, which is currently under development, will power a new AlphaServer system planned for introduction late next year. Compaq also will design and build new NonStop Himalaya systems based on MIPS chip technology until the first shipments of Itanium processor-based Himalaya systems are available in 2004. The company added that it will also continue to aggressively advance its ProLiant server roadmap based on the Itanium processor, with the first Itanium-based systems due in the third quarter of this year.
Additionally, Compaq will continue its commitment to deliver a rich roadmap of 32-bit Intel architecture-based ProLiant servers to meet customers' scale-out and scale-up requirements. To address customers' scale-out requirements, Compaq will offer a broad range of ProLiant servers including future generations of its ultra-dense servers, the forthcoming hyper-dense blade architecture servers, and other modular server form factors. Compaq will continue to meet customers' scale-up requirements with current and future generations of its popular ProLiant 8-way servers using Intel 32-bit architecture, as well as developing a 32-way ProLiant server based on the Itanium processor family.
"We will continue to invest aggressively in scale-up and scale-out of Microsoft technology," Michael Capellas noted. "And we will continue to work closely with Microsoft to drive the next generation of Web services and Web delivery through Microsoft. NET."
Both companies have agreed to joint engineering development focused on advanced parallelism for high-end computing, and are investing in a multi-year marketing program to enable software vendors and Compaq's installed base of customers to move their applications to servers incorporating the Itanium processor family.
For more information, visit www.intel.com (new window) or www.compaq.com (new window).