Re: Business Week: Scott McNealy as Custer in CEO's Last Stand

From: Bill Gunshannon (bill_at_cs.uofs.edu)
Date: 08/02/04 

Date: 2 Aug 2004 18:17:06 GMT

In article <cf15391e.0408020927.78be9056@posting.google.com>,
        keithparris_NOSPAM@yahoo.com (Keith Parris) writes:
>
> I found particularly interesting McNealy's statement that his biggest
> regret now is not having ported Solaris to Intel chips 6-7 years ago:
>
> "Three insiders recall a planning session in 1997, when several
> engineers made a presentation about the increasing power of low-cost
> chips from Intel. Gene Banman, an exec who had just returned from
> running Sun's business in Japan, argued that Sun could get a chip from
> Intel for 30% less than it cost Sun to make an equally powerful SPARC
> chip. Chet Silvestri, who ran chip design, shot back that his staff
> would never let that happen. After a 20-minute debate, McNealy put an
> end to the meeting. "I don't see the problem here," he said, according
> to one insider. Then he laid down his orders: For the time being, no
> Sun computers would have Intel inside. Today, Intel's processors are
> twice as fast as SPARC chips, and McNealy admits that his biggest
> regret is "not putting Solaris on [Intel's chips] six or seven years
> ago.""

Sorry, this sounds like a crock. SUN introduced the 386i in 1989 running
SunOS 4.0.2. Solaris 2.1 in 1992 supported x86. Solaris 2.4 in 1994
supported x86. And every version since has supported x86.
Other intermediate versions may have (and probably did as I can't
imagine a reason to skip some versions) also supported x86, but I
don't have that information within easy grasp right now.

bill 

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
bill@cs.scranton.edu     |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>

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