It’s getting harder for Unix workstation vendors to ignore the growing threat to their core businesses from Intel-based systems running Windows NT. Last week, Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp staged their promised Workstation Leadership Forum in Seattle (CI No 3,348), gathering 300 of its industry supporters together to talk up the market, previewing a high-end version of the AGP Accelerated Graphics Port specification, and introducing a new migration service program for software vendors. The two claimed that the Pentium II, new graphics technologies and improvements in Windows NT meant that even high-end electronic design tools that used to be exclusively found on RISC-based Unix workstations were now making the move to Intel and NT. The AGP Pro interface specification is expected to deliver up to four times the electrical power of AGP 1.0, and has an enhanced connector, an improved cooling system, and form factor specifications such as graphics card size and layout specifications for both IA-32 and IA-64 workstations. It will support both 2X and 4X modes. The increased power will enable Intel workstations to support such features as single and multiple-image displays, integrated video and 3D and advanced realism, for simulation, mechanical CAD, financial modeling and digital content creation applications. Intel says that Compaq Computer Corp, Dell Computer Inc, Hewlett- Packard Co, IBM Corp and Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG have already backed the new specification, along with high-end graphics developers such as Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp, Dynamic Pictures Inc and 3Dlabs Inc. The new specification should be available in the second quarter as an addendum to AGP 2.0. For those applications vendors who haven’t yet moved from Unix/RISC, Intel and Microsoft launched the MAP Migration Assistance Program, also intended to help prepare for Intel’s 64-bit Merced chip, due out next year. Software vendors must apply to Intel or Microsoft by March 31, and the most qualified ISVs will be selected and notified by May 15. They will receive briefings, documentation, services and support, and discounts on hardware and software. Figures from IDC Corp say that sales of Intel-based workstations running Windows NT increased 80% in 1997, while Unix sales declined 7%. Shipments of Intel-NT workstations outsold Unix for the first time last year, with 1.3m sold compared with 660,000 Unix units. OEMS more than doubled the number of machines on which they pre-installed Windows NT Workstation, Intel and Microsoft claimed. รก
