Oracle claims that HP was receiving stack-loads of cash from Intel to keep producing products that used the Itanium chip.
The database company has released court documents it says show that the maker of expensive printer ink did a dirty deed with Intel to artificially stretch out the Itanium roadmap.
Chipzilla allegedly wrote a cheque for nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars to continue developing Itanium processors to prevent customers of HP's Integrity server line from adopting competing platforms and disrupting HP's lucrative Integrity-related service business.
HP has said that Oracle's March 2011 announcement to no longer develop software for Itanium servers was part of a calculated business strategy to drive hardware sales from Itanium to inferior Sun servers.
It claims that Oracle breached its contractual commitment to HP and ignored its repeated promises of support to shared customers.
The Oracle allegation is that HP engaged in a "multi-year campaign of secrecy and deception designed to conceal the truth about Intel Corporation's commitment to the Itanium microprocessor in order to extend its Itanium server business at Oracle's expense and reap large profits from its own unsuspecting installed base of Itanium users."
In 2008, HP learned from Intel that the chipmaker could not be bothered with the Itanium processor because no one wanted it. Instead it wanted to concentrate its resources on its x86-based Xeon processor line.
Oracle has found internal HP communications which show that the maker of expensive printer ink believed the Itanium roadmap was "more an illusion than of technical significance." The roadmap was only there to create market perception of long term viability.
In 2010, HP allegedly extended its collaboration agreement with Intel related to the Itanium processor after determining that its original plan to port its HP-UX operating system to the Intel Xeon server platform would result in problems with convincing independent software vendors to support the new HP-UX.
HP did not want to lose its profitable support business based on its Integrity servers.
If you believe Oracle, HP asked Intel to update its Kittson roadmap to split the Kittson processor into two separate releases separated by two-and-a-half years. This allowed HP to extend its "profit pool" based on revenue and services from the Integrity server platform through 2017.
I wouldn't be surprised. It's called paying for goods and services.
Did Intel do that to prevent customers of HP's Integrity server line from adopting competing platforms and disrupting HP's lucrative Integrity-related service business.
Probably not. There are most likely certain Itanium customers, to be unnamed, who are willing to pay that much to keep it alive.
Bottom line, someone might be interested in keeping that line alive for their own purposes and be willing to pay Intel, and by extension, HP, to keep that line alive. Call it a consulting fee, call it a purchase order, call it whatever. Paying money for goods and services is not illegal, even if Lounge Lizard Larry and his lackeys want to call it so.
They are just pissed because they spent all this money on Sun and everyone doesn't fall right over themselves rushing to place orders.
"Did Intel allegedly write a cheque for nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars to continue developing Itanium processors?"
No Nick got it wrong. HP pays Intel to continue designing Itanium. When HP had its own semiconductor division, they co-developed Itanium with Intel. After the HP retired their PA-RISC line, they exited the semi biz and transferred a bunch of their designers to Intel. Since then they have been subsidizing Itanium design work.
intel has been caught with its pants down before, it seems, once a criminal, always a criminal. Maybe AMD should have taken Intel all the way to courts, instead of settling out of court..
I hope people and companies see intel and HP for what they really are.
Maybe we should boycott Intel for its dirty tactics and for killing competition
only Intel didn't pay HP here, HP paid Intel to continue to develope a chip only HP uses.
here are some articles that got it right:
HP Paid Intel $690 Million To Keep Itanium On Life Support
www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/02/hp-itanium/
Oracle Details Alleged HP Payments To Keep Itanium Alive
www.crn.com/news/data-center/232500813/oracle-details-alleged-hp-payments-to-keep-itanium-alive.htm;jsessionid=bc-DkcRFlIf29lTOYuE6jw**.ecappj02?pgno=2
Yes, HP has been hoodwinking customers into thinking Itanium has a future to protect their support revenues and Intel would not be developing Itanium but-for HP's payments.
Yes, Oracle is only dropping support to bolster Sun sales. Why would Oracle's software division care who pays for a chip and how? As long as there is a large enough install base to justify porting, that is irrelevant. There is a large enough Itanium install base.
If you don't like how Intel, HP and Oracle operate, buy IBM Power and DB2.