HP’s Itanium Promise

If HP’s chief marketing officer (business systems and
technology organization) Roy Vondoorn, had jumped on the stage, spread his hands
and shouted, "I am the King of the World," the 450-odd developers
sitting in the auditorium wouldn’t have been surprised. As it is, he stopped
just short of that.

At the HP Developers’ Conference in Bangalore this August–the
last stop of a five-city crusade across Asia–the mood was more than just
enthusiastic. It was positively aggressive. HP was pitching its Itanium
philosophy to developers and the message it was trying to give out was clear:
The movement from Intel Architecture 32 to IA-64 is inevitable. We are the
co-developers of IA-64. Ergo, we are the best company to go with when you shift
to Itanium.

HP told developers Itanium was more than just a new platform.
"It is the beginning of a whole new family of processors and a completely
different ball game. This is the true inflexion point in the market. Things will
never be the same again." Reason: apart from upgrading from 32-bit to
64-bit processing, HP is selling its faith in the new EPIC architecture
(Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing) based on VLIW technology. EPIC is
different from RISC and CISC architecture used by most high end processors today
in that it relies heavily on the compiler. As HP said, "back in 1986, we
bet our enterprise server business on RISC. We are doing the same thing with
Itanium. Just, a little bit better."

HP went a step further and in announcing its product roadmap
committed itself to phasing out its RISC servers by 2004 (see box). PA 8600 is
currently shipping and HP told developers that the PA 8900 in 2004 is probably
going to be its last PA-RISC server. Though the company will continue to support
its existing PA-RISC customer base, the message is clear: we are moving on to
IPF (the Itanium processor family), and we want you to move with us. In fact, by
the time the PA 8900 comes to the market, HP would have already moved to Itanium
II, codenamed McKinley, expected to be introduced in 2002. And McKinley’s next
version, Madison, which is expected to appear in systems in 2003... The big
change in Madison is likely to be Intel’s move from 0.18 micron to a 0.13
micron. That and a better compiler will make Madison three times faster than the
Itanium.

HP’s pitch to developers was multifold–that it offers the
widest range of IPF-based systems (see box), that it would provide a
comprehensive range of transition services and finally, that it offers HP
OpenView management software for Itanium based systems. HP offers three
operating systems on the Itanium: Windows, Linux and it’s own HP UX 11i. The
repeated message throughout the conference was–"we have a platform of
choice strategy. The choice of development platform we use can be totally
independent of the deployment platform the customer wants."

The company is currently looking at targeting three major
segments–developers and ISVs, the secure Internet server space and the
technical computing space. But developers, more than most, are crucial to the
company as the range of applications available on the Itanium will determined
its speed of adoption. To facilitate this process the company is setting up
centers called Partners Technology Access Centers in six countries in the region–Japan,
Singapore, Korea, China, Australia and in Bangalore in India. Arun Thiagarajan,
president HP India told developers that PTAC centers would offer migration and
porting services, testing and validation, knowledge transfer and consulting,
apps assessment and technical assistance.

Taking on the Competition

Though the mood at the developer forum was upbeat and more,
the printer king, server player and wannabe software giant is battling with
competitors at all sides. Firstly with other server players like IBM, Compaq and
Dell who’ve thrown their hat in with the Itanium. HP’s strategy on all three–beat
them with derision. The conference was liberally sprinkled with references to
competitors with one bottom line message: They are also there. But we are the
best. "Dell is good at producing inexpensive hardware but doesn’t have
much experience in providing enterprise-class solutions and services. Not really
the same class you know, " Vandoorn told developers. As for Compaq,
"they first offered Alpha as the next best thing to happen to the market.
Then they saw the Itanium and abandoned the Alpha strategy to jump onto this
bandwagon. Good for them actually. But it still leaves Compaq many years behind
HP in preparations."

But HP’s biggest threat in the long run could be IBM, which
has announced its support to Itanium. But Vandoorn’s take on IBM,
"Frankly, they are a little confused. There is a group that doesn’t want
to go with the Itanium, and another that does. Finally, they have announced that
Aix will support Itanium–however, it is a different version of Itanium."
HP says there will be porting and apps issues between the two Aix 5L versions.

Sun has so far ignored HP’s barbs, choosing instead to
respond to the product rather than the company. Says KP Unnikrishnan, Sun India’s
Marketing head, "As Sun celebrates five years of 64-bit processor success,
we are welcoming Intel to the party, congratulating the company for its birth of
Itanium. It just goes to show that 64-bit architecture, which Sun pioneered and
perfected, is a requirement. Not an option." And, says Sun, "Of
course, we all remember who the pioneer of the 64-bit processor is."

Besides, Sun Microsystems is not really worried about the
Itanium just now, as early reviews show Itanium doing well at the high-end
scientific operations, but not so well on general-purpose business applications.
What Sun’s watching out and preparing for is the next generation of Itanium
processors–the McKinley.

Sarita Rani in Bangalore