HP has ended its Itanium chip development partnership with Intel.
The two have collaborated on what became the Itanium project since the late 1980s, and Intel will take over HP’s Colarado-based development team for the chip.
At the same time, HP publicly declared its fealty to the Itanium platform, saying it has extended its commitment to invest $3 billion over the next three years to help drive Intel Itanium-2-based Integrity servers into markets currently served by RISC platforms.
Intel said the team plays a key role in the design of several current and future Itanium processors including the upcoming dual core Montecito and Montvale, and the multi-core Tukwila.
However, neither company has disclosed further details of the deal, or their previous agreements on Itanium.
An Intel spokeswoman refused to comment on how large Intel’s Itanium team now was, or whether any money has changed hands as a result of the transfer. Likewise, she could not say whether the firm’s original deal had set a specific time limit on the firms’ co-development of Itanium or envisaged Intel eventually taking exclusive responsibility for the Itanium project.
Thus it is moot whether HP’s commitment on Itanium 2-based Integrity machines represents a dramatic departure from its existing plans.
Likewise, it can be assumed Intel was always effectively obliged to take responsibility for the developers in the event of HP no longer having the urge to push the platform.
As of yesterday, Intel was still declaring its commitment to the Itanium platform. However, should the chip giant eventually decide it no longer believes in the architecture, it will now be able to pull the plug without reference to any partners.
