August 4, 1997

NCR To Offer Sun Solaris On Intel-Based Servers Intended to broaden appeal beyond Sparc By Mary Hayes un Microsystems and NCR Corp. will reveal plans for NCR to offer Sun's Solaris operating system on its Intel-based workgroup servers, according to sources. The move, which is the first major endorsement of Solaris on Intel, is part of Sun's effort to broaden the software's scope beyond its own Sparc platform. Sun CEO Scott McNealy and Bill Eisenman, senior VP and general manager of NCR's computer systems group, are expected to make the announcement this week. By teaming with NCR and boosting its support for the Intel platform, Sun hopes to steal market share from Microsoft's Windows NT, now the dominant Intel server platform. T he announcement will mark the first time Sun has teamed with another hardware manufacturer to promote Solaris on the Intel platform, which accounted for just 4% of the Unix-on-Intel-based systems shipped in 1996, according to International Data Corp. in Framingham, Mass. Sun has spent most of its efforts to date marketing Solaris on its own RISC-based UltraSparc chip platform. But sources say the company is working on additional deals with other Intel-based manufacturers. Sun and NCR officials would not comment. However, analysts don't believe that Sun is preparing to downplay its UltraSparc platform, which is expected to face considerable competition when Intel's 64-bit Merced chip hits the market in two years. "Within Sun, the attitude is that Solaris on Intel at the entry server level will make way for sales of Solaris on Sparc at the high-end server level," says Chris LeTocq, an analyst with Dataquest Inc. in San Jose, Calif. The move will also allow Sun to better compete with the Santa Cruz Operation Inc., which has the biggest piece of the volume Unix server market. SCO sold 36.6% of the estimated 620,000 Unix-based servers sold in 1996, including both RISC and Intel platforms, while Sun had a 13.3% market share, according to IDC. NCR has participated in a consortium of Intel-based vendors that has rallied behind SCO as the Unix operating system of choice. But analysts say the new relationship with Sun raises questions about NCR's commitment to SCO and NCR's own version of Unix. "We've been aware of the discussions, and we're surprised [NCR] is moving that way because they spent a lot of time looking at us," says Ed Adams, SCO's senior VP and general manager of the Americas. "The real momentum for Sun is to sell hardware, so it will be interesting to see what happens when Sun teams up with another hardware company." Sources say NCR may sell some Solaris-based systems through direct channels. But much of the integration between Solaris on NCR will likely take place in the reseller chan nel, and Sun will earn licensing royalties on each system sold by NCR. Back to News in Review Send Us Your Feedback Top of the Page

---