IBM Launches Unix Merced Project

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October 26, 1998 (12:00 AM EST)

IBM, along with an aggregation of Unix-savvy partners, is building another flavor of the Unix operating system with the goal of building the leading Unix product for the Intel architecture.

Hoping to generate business for ISVs, OEMs, and VARs, IBM is driving development of a Unix OS for Intel's IA-64 using IBM's AIX OS with technology from SCO's UnixWare and Sequent Computer Systems' PTX.

Code-named project Monterey, the 64-bit OS is expected to be delivered within 18 months, said executives at the Armonk, N.Y.-based company.

IBM said it also plans to transfer AIX technology to SCO's UnixWare and promote it in the Unix IA-32 market. The end result should be a product line with Unix running on IA-32, IA-64, and IBM microprocessors in computers that run the gamut from desktop to large enterprise systems.

"IBM is totally committed to making this effort a success," said Bob Stephenson, IBM senior vice president for servers. "We have created a separate Unix brand group within our server group."

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel is providing technical and marketing support and is creating a multimillion dollar ISV fund for this Unix, IBM and Intel officials said, adding the fund would exceed "tens of millions of dollars over time."

The project is good news for VARs, said both Stephenson and SCO CEO Doug Michels.

"My main advice to our VARs is to keep doing what you are doing," Michels said. "We are going to continue providing our VARs with better and better systems."

Other OEMs, such as Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, and Compaq, were welcome to join the project, Stephenson said, adding that Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sun, in particular, showed no interest.

The initiative would produce the leading Unix on Intel because of "volume, shrink-wrap economies, great features, and wide support by ISVs and systems vendors," said John Minor, enterprise-server group vice president at Intel, in a conference call.