Intel and HP Commit $10 billion to Boost Itanium
SAN FRANCISCO–Intel, Hewlett-Packard and seven other server companies will spend $10 billion through 2010 to try to increase adoption of the Itanium processor.
The money is coming from Intel and HP–Itanium’s co-developers and top backers–as well as from Unisys, Silicon Graphics Inc., NEC, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Fujitsu-Siemens and Groupe Bull. The companies said Thursday that they will spend the money on research and development, marketing, and work to help software companies support the high-end processor.
“Itanium has been taking share from both IBM power and Sun Sparc. We’re on the right trajectory, but we want to go faster,” Tom Kilroy, general manager of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group, said at a press event here. “The $10 billion investment is a statement that we want to accelerate as a unified body.”
The companies are members of the Itanium Solutions Alliance, which includes Microsoft, Red Hat, Novell, Oracle and other software companies. The alliance also announced its Itanium Solutions Catalog, which describes various combinations of hardware and software for specific tasks.