Hewlett-Packard has admitted that it has a special agreement with Intel Corp. concerning shipments and supplies of Itanium microprocessors with Intel Corp. This has nothing to do with artificially keeping IA64 architecture and appropriate chips for HP’s mission-critical servers alive artificially. HP reaffirmed that the contract spans throughout this decade.

“Oracle well knows, HP and Intel have a contract that ensures the robust continued development and supply of new generations of Itanium microprocessors for mission-critical enterprises spanning this decade,” a statement by HP reads.

Earlier this year Oracle ceased to develop software compatible with Itanium hardware and claimed that Itanium would be shortly phased-out by Intel. HP, which makes high-end business-critical Integrity and Superdome servers based on Itanium microprocessors, sued Oracle for breaching its Itanium support deal. Besides, HP accused Oracle of spreading misinformation about the future of Itanium.

“HP is resolved to enforcing Oracle's commitments to HP and our shared customers and will continue to take actions to protect its customers' best interests. It is time for Oracle to quit pursuing baseless accusations and honor its commitments to HP and to our shared customers in a timely manner,” HP added.

Oracle accused Hewlett-Packard and Intel of artificially keeping Itanium lineup alive due to contract obligations. Such agreement is not illegal and is pretty logical, given the fact the importance of Itanium for HP. What is somewhat strange is that neither Intel nor HP share any plans about the new Itanium chips due after 2015. The companies are too vague to even mention future Itanium code-names apart from Poulson and Kittson.

Tags: Intel, Itanium, HP, HP-UX, Kittson, Poulson, Tukwila, Oracle