Intel and Sun Tie The Knot

February 15th, 2007: Sun and Intel have signed a landmark agreement and announced a wide-ranging strategic alliance that will see Intel support the Solaris operating system, and Sun deliver servers and workstations based on Xeon processors.

In addition, the two will also conduct joint engineering, design and marketing and support other enterprise-class technology between them. The deal will also see Intel embrace Solaris as a mainstream OS and support Sun's Java and NetBeans products and their respective communities as they evolve.

Sun will be adding new platforms to its range based on Intel Architecture in the first half of 2007. From here the company says it plans to deliver a complete family of Intel-based systems with uni-, dual- and multi-processor based servers and workstations supporting Solaris, Windows and Linux.  Intel and Sun will also collaborate around greater than four processor scale-up systems.

“We're excited about Intel's long term Xeon road map and the performance we're seeing with Solaris and Sun Java on the Xeon platforms," says Jonathan Schwartz, president and CEO, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "And Intel's endorsement for and agreement to OEM Solaris opens markets for both of us across the world. This is truly a landmark relationship for the industry."

As part of the alliance, Intel will distribute and support Solaris to its customers and both companies will encourage independent software vendors (ISVs) and system providers to expand their offerings for Solaris on Intel-based systems.

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