Sequent Computer Systems Inc has been seeking a partner to share future Unix operating system development costs for more than two years now, and CEO Casey Powell says he’ll save money in the long run by partnering with DEC even though the company told us it will actually increase its R&D spend on Unix under the agreement (see above). After rejecting Santa Cruz Operation Inc’s UnixWare Intel operating system as too low-end for its requirement Sequent went off and evaluated Sun Microsystems Inc’s Solaris x86, the 64-bit Unix-on-Intel route already chosen by NCR Corp. However Sequent went cold on Sun when it was offered only Solaris x86 and not Sparc Solaris technologies; and there’s a huge gap between the two. Sequent told us Solaris x86 simply doesn’t match the performance of Solaris on Sparc and believes Sun has no business reason to create parity between the two technologies until SMCC [Sun’s hardware arm] sells Intel systems. Sequent said Sun also refused to accommodate it as a development partner (which Sun denies) effectively cutting off its input to future products, while the company’s antipathy to Microsoft Corp was clearly contrary to Sequent’s increasing support of Windows NT. The company’s coolness to Sun was noted as references to Solaris were dropped from conversations towards the end of last year (CI No 3,307), and when as part of its patent settlement with Intel last October (CI No 3,262), DEC agreed to support Digital Unix on IA- 64 as well as Alpha RISC, Sequent made a beeline for Maynard. It said it didn’t even think about stopping off at Palo Alto as Hewlett-Packard Co, which is also moving its Unix to IA-64, has no idea of how to partner.
