IBM Corp hasn’t made a final decision on whether it’s going to make AIX available on a Merced server of its own creation, even though its backroom people have the porting task specified, and server VP Bill Zeitler says it’s likely (CI No 3,413). After testing the AIX-on-Intel waters with consultants and analysts for more than a month now, Big Blue says if Merced goes gangbusters then we’ll do it. It’s concerned, however, that such a plan might be interpreted by the market – and its competitors – as evidence that it’s de-emphasizing its PowerPC strategy. Not so, it says, claiming its current line of PowerPC chips have enough headroom to carry it well past the year 2000, noting former IBM Microelectronics development chief John Kelly is now head of server system development. It acknowledges that the costs of continued processor development are spiraling – despite the fact that the great benefit of RISC was supposed to be that iterated designs would be cheaper. I t also says that market dynamics are changing but says its server group has no dire need to go to Merced right now. It believes it still has plenty of time to orchestrate an AIX/Merced server strategy if it needs to.
