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Caldera joins Linux-on-Itanium race

A fourth major Linux seller releases a version of its operating system for Intel's upcoming Itanium chip.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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Stephen Shankland
2 min read
A fourth major Linux seller has released a version of its operating system for Intel's upcoming Itanium chip.

On Friday, Caldera posted an early version of its OpenLinux product designed for the Itanium chip, the first member of a 64-bit chip family from Intel designed to compete with Sun Microsystems' UltraSparc, Hewlett-Packard's PA-RISC, SGI's MIPS, IBM's Power, and Compaq Computer's Alpha.

Intel is heavily backing Linux to become one of three mainstream operating systems for the delayed chip. Under the new schedule, only a test batch of computers running on Itanium chips will come out this year. Systems for commercial consumption will arrive in the first half of 2001.

Caldera's biggest competitors, TurboLinux, Red Hat and SuSE, have already released test versions of Linux for Itanium.

All the companies have cautioned that their releases are prototypes, though, and Caldera is no exception. The company's Itanium twist lacks the slick Lizard installer, some password management software or the X Windows graphical systems.

Microsoft's 64-bit version of Windows is in a similar state of unreadiness. Microsoft shipped a test version to developers last month.

HP, the co-inventor of the IA-64 architecture, also has been backing the Linux-on-Itanium effort. HP Labs' David Mosberger has led the effort to create a version of Linux for IA-64, and HP has released simulator software that allows programmers with ordinary 32-bit Intel machines to see if their 64-bit software will work.

Caldera, with its recent acquisition of Santa Cruz Operation's Unix software line, will have a tighter relationship with IA-64 chips than most Linux companies. SCO's UnixWare, along with IBM's AIX, is a key component of the "Monterey-64" version of Unix that will run on Itanium.