Not for the chips, per se, but to keep making them

Nov 23, 2011 07:32 GMT  ·  By

HP and Oracle have been exchanging barbs over the Itanium server processor platform for months, and the latest, big accusations from Oracle turned out to be true.

Granted, as with any court bashing, each side is doing its best to make its case as big and strong as possible.

Oracle took its turn the other day, saying that the only reason Itanium still gets promoted by Intel is because HP has a long-term contract with it.

That is to say, HP is paying Intel to keep the platform alive as part of a contract.

This isn't illegal, but Oracle is affronted because this sent the two on a campaign to force it to keep making software for the chips (Oracle stopped developing new platforms earlier this year).

HP basically admitted to what Oracle said, in a way, but said the goal isn't as nefarious as it makes it sound.