Posted on 12/14/2001


Eweek Reports:

"Dell Computer Corp. is going to pull the plug on its Itanium-based workstation, according to sources at the company.

The withdrawal of the Dell Precision Workstation 730 would mark another setback in Intel Corp.'s efforts to boost relatively lackluster sales of its first 64-bit processor targeted for use in high-end workstations and servers.

Since Intel introduced the Itanium in May, market research firms have found that computer makers have shipped relatively few Itanium-based workstations and servers. Figures compiled by Gartner Dataquest show that computer makers have shipped just over 1,700 workstations and 2,600 servers based on Itanium chips worldwide this year."

Indeed, Compaq Computer Corp., the world's largest seller of Intel-based servers, disclosed last month that it had still not shipped its new Itanium-based server, the ProLiant 590/64, which was first announced in July, because the system failed to pass stress tests conducted by Compaq's labs.

Currently, the 64-bit processor market is dominated by Sun Microsystems Inc., IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co., with each company offering Unix-based hardware built using their own RISC-based 64-bit chips and tied to proprietary software. Intel's hoping to carve out market share by targeting companies looking to add high-end servers based on Microsoft Corp.'s new 64-bit Window operating system."

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