By Siobhan Kennedy
Intel Corp this week released the specifications of its next generation I/O server architecture, despite requests by IBM Corp to work together to develop the technology. The news is the latest twist in what has become an increasingly bitter and public battle between the two computer giants. It started in September, when IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co and Compaq Computer Corp revealed that they had been secretly working together on a new, joint specification, called PCI-X, to replace the current Intel- designed PCI bus (CI No 3,492). Weeks later, Intel announced it was privately working on a specification for a radical, new server system I/O architecture to replace the PCI bus system by the end of the year 2000. Intel’s new architecture is based on switched fabric; a radically different technique from today’s PCI buses. Rather than take a signal from the CPU into a bus through hard wires (the PCI implementation), signals are passed from the chip into a high-speed silicon switch or fabric. The fabric system is much faster because components in the I/O sub-system each have a direct connection to the fabric, as opposed to sharing the pipe and waiting in line for a signal, which slows the whole system down. But a senior director at IBM told ComputerWire (CI No 3,529) that he was in negotiations with Intel to encourage the chip manufacturer to give up its separate development plans and put its ideas together with IBM’s, which is also working on next generation bus to replace PCI-X. The idea, he said, was to develop a single open standard bus architecture as opposed to both companies going at it from different directions, forcing users to choose between two incompatible systems. But at the last day of its Server I/O forum in San Diego yesterday, Intel took the lid off specifications for its NGIO, or Next Generation I/O architecture. Speaking to ComputerWire, Mitch Shults, Intel’s director of server platform marketing ruled out any question of working with IBM to develop the system. We have discussions with IBM on an on-going basis, he said, you could describe them as negotiations if you wish, but this announcement is certainly nothing to do with them. Shults said the NGIO specification was the culmination of two years of cooperative work involving more than 20 partners, among them Sun Microsystems Inc, Dell Computer Corp and Siemens. He said Sun and Intel had got together nine months ago after Sun revealed it too was working on a next generation switched fabric bus architecture. But after negotiations, Sun decided to ditch its plans and endorse Intel’s specifications instead. Shults added that Intel wasn’t deliberately going out of its way not to work with IBM, in fact the chip giant would welcome endorsement from IBM tomorrow. But he added: what we are at odds with IBM about is how it wants to implement the specification. The core technology has got to be based on common standards and interfaces but as I understand it that’s not how IBM wants to do it. Referring to the original PCI specification, Shults said Intel had signed an agreement with the PCI special interest group that called for the specification to be made available to any manufacturer for free, with no license payment to Intel. But IBM refused to sign any such agreement and has collected royalty fees for its implementation of the PCI bus from day one, he added. How does that play out into the future, he said, if big companies receive payments from lots of smaller companies for using their technology to develop products? It’s not the way to evolve open, industry standards. Shults said Intel was also planning to form a new governing body, to be headed by Intel, to oversee the development and subsequent roll out of the specification. A spokesperson for IBM said it was very speculative for Intel to assume Big Blue’s architecture would be based on proprietary technology and added that any future I/O specifications would be based on open standards. It only indicates that person isn’t very knowledgeable on the subject., he said.
