Vendor Spotlight:

HP HALTS SALE OF INTEL'S ITANIUM-BASED WORKSTATIONS

Hewlett-Packard plans to discontinue the sale of workstations based on Intel's Itanium processors. HP's goal is to focus on chips capable of running both 32- bit and 64-bit software without moving to an entirely different architecture.

The chips, partially designed by HP, were to replace Intel's existing x86 chip technology. Because of the chips late arrival in 2001, they failed to adequately accomodate customers' existing software.

Hewlett-Packard said it will continue to provide customer and technical support for the two workstation lines for five years. It also will continue to offer Itanium 2-loaded servers, sold under the Integrity brand name.