IBM plans to port the new operating system to both IA-64 and its own PowerPC processor. The company says its AIX Unix will remain a viable product at least through 2001. Intel will provide technical and marketing support to the Monterey project, and the partners will contribute tens of millions of dollars to generate independent software vendor support for the group's efforts. Intel's commitment to fund software vendors' support is unprecedented, says Scott Richardson, director of server marketing for the chipmaker. Broad application support for Project Monterey's Unix is crucial, because that's what makes NT and other standard platforms so successful, say experts.
Customers choose an app first, then evaluate the systems it runs on.
Vendors such as Informix have already signed on to support Monterey. Steve Valentine, CIO for retailer Autozone Inc. in Memphis, Tenn., says he'd consider servers based on the Monterey operating system for the company's data center. But because Autozone operates a mixed Unix environment, he hopes that Project Monterey will get attention from more software vendors. If the deal compels software vendors to provide better application integration between high-end and departmental Unix servers, Valentine says he'll no longer be limited when he wants a solution to cut across all levels of the organization. For instance, parts could be automatically replenished to stores.