HP's Platt makes clear: Unix, Windows co-exist

Electronic News,  May 26, 1997  by Sarah Cohen

Tags: Hewlett-Packard Co., marketing, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows NT, Unix

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At a press event in New York, HP chairman, president and CEO Lew Platt made references to accusations from Sun Microsystems that HP is planning to abandon Unix for Windows NT. Mr. Platt stated, "We'd be out of our ever-lovin' minds to drop Unix. Those companies that spread these rumors reflect their small size. Unlike Sun, an $8 billion company, we're a $32 billion company. We're big enough and experienced enough to walk and chew gum at the same time, and our customers need both Windows NT and Unix."

Mr. Platt called the introduction of the new servers for the Extended Enterprise (the Extended Enterprise is HP's vision of corporations and utilities connected via the Internet), "evidence of our commitment to Unix." At least for now. Bill Russel, GM of HP's Enterprise Server group, explained that HP ultimately plans to incorporate the RISC/x86 Merced microprocessor, or IA-64, being jointly developed by HP and Intel, into the servers, which will allow the servers to run both Unix and Windows NT applications, as well as coordinate activities between either operating environment. The Merced chip is expected to be available in 1999.

Todd Reece, GM of HP's Open Systems Software division, responded to the notion that Unix systems only account for 5 percent of the computing market, an idea brought up during Microsoft's "Scalability Day" media extravaganza to promote Windows NT as a server-ready operating system. "Unix may only account for 5 percent of the total market, but 80 percent of mission-critical applications sit on a mainframe. Windows NT has a long way to go before it can scale up to the size of a Unix mainframe, is as reliable or is as easy to manage and keep secure." He added that HP "is not doing battle with Microsoft" and that "in the case of Unix versus Windows NT, it's not an either/or situation."

At the press event, HP introduced the HP 9000 V2200 enterprise server, designed for up to 32-way symmetric multiprocessing (SMP); HP HyperPlane, a cross-bar technology; a 200-MHz PA-RISC PA-8200 64-bit microprocessor; and a 64B HP-UX 11.00 enterprise-class operating environment. It also introduced two new K-Class Enterprise Servers with up to six PA-8200 processors.

The HP 9000 V2200 enterprise server features up to 16-way SMP at first release, with up to 32-way SMP capability planned for 1998, said HP. The V2200 is powered by the 200MHz 64B PA-8200 processors and paves the way for a board-upgrade path to the PA-8500 processor in 1998.

HP touts this new server as one of the highest-performing servers on the market, but with pricing as low as $600,000. "With up to 16 PA-8200 processors, and up to 2 gigabytes of memory, HP's V2200 enterprise server is expected to outperform similarly configured, but more expensive, Unix systems--such as Sun's UE10000--and is expected to deliver performance comparable to that of an IBM 390 mainframe, list-priced at more than $1 million," stated the company. The low price fits into the HP idea of the Extended Enterprise, for which HP believes corporations and utilities will need the highest performance possible for the lowest price.

In other news, HP announced early last week that it is consolidating sales and channel-management activities within its Computer organization and realigning segments to focus on electronic commerce and other opportunities created by the Internet. To this end, HP has created three Internet-related organizations: The Internet Technology group, led by Ira P. Goldstein, 49, GM; the Extended Enterprise business unit, led by Glenn R. Osaka, 42, GM; and VeriFone, assuming the completion of HP's proposed acquisition of the electronic commerce company, to be led by Hatim Tyabji, VeriFone president and CEO. Once the acquisition is completed, VeriFone will be managed as a separate subsidiary, said HP.

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