IBM, HP, Sun Show Unity In One Way: Belief In Unix

Sales for servers running the decades-old Unix operating system aren't growing as quickly as those that run on Microsoft's Windows and the open-source Linux. But recent maneuvers by large server vendors show that Unix is still a big business -- and showing new signs of life.

The $16 billion-a-year market, which comprises everything from workstations to high-end servers, has long been a three-way race between Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. The contest intensified over the last year as Sun tried to keep its footing, HP held its own and IBM gained.

Who's Crazy?

Now all three vendors are looking for signs that recent bets they've made -- gambits the other two rivals call crazy -- will pay off this year:

IBM is counting on its Power line of chips to provide better bang for the buck than rival vendors. The firm controls every part of the process, from chip design to manufacturing. Rivals say IBM can't afford to do this for long.

Sun also designs its own chips, called Sparc. But it has been shifting some of that burden to partner Fujitsu to cut costs.

Also, it's giving away its flavor of Unix, called Solaris, including a version that runs on cheap Intel-compatible machines. It's a bid for market share, which it hopes will spur hardware and service sales.

HP is touting gains for servers powered by Itanium, a chip it developed with Intel. The chip is widely mocked by IBM and Sun, but HP says it's gained quickly on Sun's Sparc and IBM's Power families in several key measures.

"The Unix market is still a very competitive market," said Don Jenkins, who heads HP's Unix strategy.

This market is a confluence of two separate technologies: the Unix operating system, created by Bell Labs in 1969, and the RISC, or reduced instruction set computer, chip design created by IBM in the 1970s.

"When I started covering this space in the mid-1990s, there were almost 15 Unix vendors," said Jean Bozman, an analyst with International Data Corp. "Today, it's down to a top five."

She adds that the top three -- IBM, HP and Sun -- account for 90% of the business.