Intel Joins Unix Interface Effort

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September 17, 1998 (1:44 PM EDT)

By Eileen Colkin and Tom Davey,

At its annual developers' forum Wednesday in Palm Springs, Calif., Intel said it will join a group of Unix vendors, including Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, IBM, and SCO, in developing specifications for a standard driver interface for Unix operating systems.

Intel (company profile) announced its support for, and participation in, the Uniform Driver Interface Specifications effort. The UDI will let peripheral vendors write to a single interface for a variety of Unix operating systems. According to Kevin Quick, UDI project chairman, standardized specifications will let IT managers focus more on the operating system's capabilities. "Instead of spending time and effort porting servers and debugging, we can now focus on the core features and functions of the operating system," he said.

While the UDI project has existed for a few years, Intel's support is a push forward in the group's plans to create interoperable Unix-based servers. Joining the UDI effort gives Intel an opportunity to reach the high-performance server market represented by Sun and IBM. Products meeting the established specifications are expected to be available by the middle of next year.

Intel vice president and general manager of the enterprise server Group John Miner used his keynote address to give a progress update on the company's effort to define a commodity platform for servers. First, version 1.0 of the Intelligent Platform Management Interface has been released; it provides specifications for developing interoperable platform-management hardware. Second, companies will begin later this week to ship products developed under the Virtual Interface Architecture initiative. The VIA offers common interfaces that will speed access to data on clustered servers. Finally, Dell, HP, Micron Electronics, Data General, and NEC have joined Intel in forming a Server System Infrastructure Initiative council that will work to standardize power supplies and electronics-bay design specifications for servers.