Intel pushes UNIX... (fwd)

[Bruce Smith <bruce@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Intel unveils Unix initiative - Forum yields new partnerships


September 22, 1998


InfoWorld via NewsEdge Corporation : At the Intel Developer
Forum in Palm Springs last week, the company detailed plans to
distance itself from Microsoft while helping to cut the cost of
computers. 

One example is Intel's plan to join several I/O hardware and Unix
operating system vendors in a consortium to develop a standard
device driver interface. 

The Uniform Driver Interface (UDI) initiative is supported by OS
vendors Compaq/Digital, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, SCO, and Sun,
as well as interface card vendors Adaptec, Bit3, and Interphase,
according to John Miner, an Intel vice president and general
manager of the Enterprise Server group, in Beaverton, Ore. 

Also supported by the Linux community, the UDI specification
aims to overcome the lack of interoperability faced by companies
that deliver hardware to the Unix market, Miner explained. 

Today, an interface card vendor has to develop and support
different device drivers for each version of Unix. In contrast,
the supplier of a UDI- compliant driver has just one driver to
support. 

One observer likened UDI to Microsoft's Windows Driver Model,
which helps designers write one driver for both Windows 98 and
Windows NT. 

UDI, initiated by SCO, does not move the industry toward a
single version of Unix, but it does help reduce costs by
increasing its commonality, said Justin Rattner, Intel Fellow and
director of the Server Architecture Lab, in Hillsboro, Ore. 

IT managers can expect to find products that implement the UDI
specification in mid-1999, according to Rattner. 

Another example of Intel's move toward independence from
Microsoft is the presilicon development environment Intel is
shipping to independent hardware and software vendors. The
development kit lets vendors debug products that will work with
Unix OSes on the IA-64 Merced CPU, even before the chip is
available in silicon. 

Also at the forum, RealNetworks announced that it is
incorporating Intel's Streaming Web Video software technology
into its RealSystem G2 streaming video server. RealNetworks
will incorporate the Intel technology into the second beta release
of the G2 servers, expected in about 30 days. 

"Intel is showing its independence of Microsoft with this
announcement, " said Martin Marshall, an analyst at Zona
Research, in Redwood City, Calif. "It does nothing to stitch up
the fundamental and seemingly growing rift between Microsoft's
streaming video effort and RealNetworks'. " 

Microsoft and RealNetworks converged in a brief love fest more
than a year ago, promising to support one another's existing
formats, Marshall explained. They diverged with RealNetworks'
announcement of its G2 server. 

An Intel-RealNetworks alliance may not be enough to beat
Microsoft, Marshall added. 

"Ultimately it will be hard for anyone, including RealNetworks, to
compete with streaming video formats that are passed out as
part of the Windows NT operating system," Marshall said. 

Intel Corp., in Santa Clara, Calif., is at (800) 628-8686 or
http://www.intel.com. RealNetworks Inc., in Seattle, is at
http://www.real.com. 

Moving forward 

Intel's aim to lower the cost and improve the performance of
notebooks, desktops, and servers includes the following plans. 

* Data General, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Micron Electronics, and
NEC have joined Intel's Server System Infrastructure (SSI)
Council, which aims to standardize on server power supplies and
electronics bays. 

* Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) 1.0 is now
available. Led by Dell, HP, Intel, and NEC, IPMI simplifies
building PCs from functional blocks, and allows platform
management hardware from different system vendors to use the
same control software. 

* With the Virtual Interface (VI) architecture, Intel is helping to
develop common interfaces for the hardware and software used
to communicate within a cluster of servers or workstations. 

* Next year, Intel will add security features to its CPUs, core
logic, and motherboards to spur Internet-commerce
applications. 

* Intel released Version 2.0 of its Wired for Management baseline
specification. 

* Intel is working on a "next-generation" server I/O concept that
aims to improve system availability. 

* Intel introduced a single-chip home network controller to
enable home networking via existing telephone lines. 

* Three new Intel performance evaluation and analysis kit tools
target digital video disc, I/O subsystems, and IEEE-1394
interfaces. 

* Rambus is offering a component validation program to ensure
that Rambus RIMMs from any vendor will work in any
Rambus-equipped PC. 

[Copyright 1998, InfoWorld]