In this filing, Oracle claims that Intel's Itanium processor is virtually dead and only on artificial life support as HP is paying Intel a substantial amount of money to support the perception that the Itanium processor is an actively developed product.
In its filing, Oracle alleges that HP's interest in the survival of Itanium are service contracts for HP-UX that is running on Itanium systems. Losing Oracle as a software vendor that is delivering software for Itanium could contribute to customer decisions to migrate to different platforms. "This is a multi-billion dollar problem for HP," the document states. What makes this claim especially interesting is the fact that Oracle's co-president, Mark Hurd, was HP's CEO until August 2010 and has detailed knowledge of HP's operations.
"These factors led HP to craft a top-secret plan to create a false perception that Itanium still had a future," Oracle states in the document published by All Things Digital. "HP understands that the future prospects of IT products drive customer purchasing decisions. A buyer who knew that Intel saw no future for Itanium, and was only continuing to invest in the line pursuant to a contractual obligation, would devalue the future prospects of Itanium servers and be less inclined to buy."
HP, however, continues to claim that Oracle's move to drop Itanium support was solely designed to force its customers into buying Sun servers. "This filing is just the latest in its ongoing campaign to shore up its failing Sun server business and starve thousands of existing Itanium customers who rely on their Itanium processors for mission-critical activities." HP said. "As Oracle well knows, HP and Intel have a contractual commitment to continue to sell mission-critical Itanium processers to our customers through the next two generations of microprocessors, thus ensuring the availability of Itanium through at least the end of the decade. 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."
Intel declined to comment on the allegations.