Companies are scrambling to deny Intel Corp’s Merced delay will cause them any problems but while Intel’s news is bad for some it looks good for others, including Sun Microsystems Inc and Santa Cruz Operation Inc. Sun because it has refused to adopt Intel chips and has more opportunity to enhance its Sparc RISC architecture. SCO can continue to bolster its 32-bit installed base, especially among those companies which are moving from RISC to 64-bit Intel-based Unix systems and are offering 32-bit Intel Unix systems in advance of Merced. It also wins more time to convince OEMs it is up to the challenge of delivering a 64-bit operating system for the enterprise. SCO says Intel’s announcement means that delivery of Merced systems is realistically delayed by a year. Observers says Intel’s introduction schedule was very aggressive to begin with. The various Unix factions also win more time to port their new or existing versions of Unix to Merced. The biggest losers are the likes of Sequent and Data General which are waiting for Merced to deliver them a competitive advantage and the PC vendors which are seeking to bolster margins by expanding into markets for high-performance servers. Siemens Nixdorf Informationssystemes AG, which recently decided to close down its MIPS RISC business for Merced, looks hung out to dry.
