The Santa Clara, California, chipmaker has been working to join the ranks of the top-tier open-source advocates and play a role in the ongoing evolution of the Linux operating system alongside the likes of
"On May 15 we will be posting (CDSA) on an Intel server where anyone can freely download the software," Terry Smith, Intel's CDSA marketing manager, told ZDNet News. "We'll release an Itanium/Linux version (to open source) in August."
Release aimed at e-biz
It is essentially middleware with capabilities that can be called on or used by applications, such as e-mail or e-business software, to provide a level of security. It can, in other words, be used to encrypt e-mail or secure electronic transactions.
By releasing the software, Intel hopes to accelerate the growth of electronic business by making transactions more secure and security software more interoperable. This, in turn, could help drive demand for Intel server chips, such as the forthcoming Itanium processor. Intel makes no bones about it, however. The effort will help sell its chips.
The move, however, comes at a time when hardware vendors IBM,
There's not a moment to waste, either.
IBM already is contributing some of its AIX UNIX technologies, including its journaling filing system, to the open-source process. The company is considering adding others in the areas of cluster technology, symmetric multiprocessing scalability, systems management and security, IBM officials have said.
"Putting more of the AIX technologies into the open-source communities ... will help us narrow the gap between Project Monterey [the IBM and Santa Cruz Operation IA-64 Linux project] and Linux," said Miles Barel, program director of Unix brand marketing for IBM's Enterprise Systems Group.
CDSA widely used
Although Version 3.0 of CDSA will be released to open source for Linux, the Windows code will come first.
The Linux version, in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, will be optimized for use with Itanium processors.
Intel partner Bull will graft CDSA 3.0 into Linux. Its port of the software will be the one released. The company has already ported CDSA 2.0 to Linux, however that technology is not available to open source.
While releasing CDSA to open source is a tiny piece of the company's overall OS strategy, it shows how Linux is playing an increasingly important role as an operating system for Intel chips.
Intel has recognized that it is not going to subsist on PC processors forever. The company has been branching out into a number of different markets, ranging from high-end servers for electronic business to communications infrastructure to hosting services and Internet appliances.
Linux, Intel officials feel, has the ability to permeate all of these.
"Linux is becoming more important to us because our direct customers, our OEMs, are seeing it as more important to their businesses," said Michael Pope, director of Intel's Enterprise Software Program. OEMs, or original equipment manufacturers, are PC makers, such as Compaq.
"What we have been doing, and what we will continue to do, is release more and more technology into open source," Pope said. "We're continuing to push the technology curve at the platform level. That means we need to ensure features are supported through hardware. Most of what Intel is doing is ensuring those features are fully enabled and tuned for Linux."
Linux route not a given
Examples abound. Intel will support Linux in its specification for next-generation server input/output, called Infiniband. The company has also made moves to ensure that Linux was available for its forthcoming Itanium processor. Intel is also utilizing Linux for an effort to supply devices, software and hardware building blocks to the Internet appliance market.
While it seems natural -- almost expected -- that Intel would support Linux, this wasn't a given.
However, Intel did have doubts about Linux up until the end of 1998.
"Intel was like a lot of other companies at that time. A lot of commercial players hadn't paid much attention to it," Pope said. "I remember thinking at the end of 1998, is this a flash in the pan?"
However, by early 1999 Intel was onboard with the OS, launching the Trillian project to develop a 64-bit version of the Linux kernel for Itanium. The kernel is the heart or core of an OS. Intel has since made a number of investments in Linux companies, including
Itanium and Trillian are important for Intel (and to some extent consumers) because they are designed to increase the performance of servers used by companies to conduct activities such as electronic commerce. The chip, because it features 64-bit addressing, requires that the software running on it be rewritten to take advantage of its characteristics. Hence the need for Trillian.
While
Trillian to pay off?
Trillian has catalyzed the development of a number of 64-bit Linux releases from a number of Trillian members. Turbo Linux, for example, recently announced an alpha version of its 64-bit Linux. Members Red Hat and SuSE are expected to offer development releases of their own 64-bit Linux releases for Itanium this quarter, sources said.
Production releases of 64-bit Linux releases are expected in the third quarter of this year, sources said. They will likely be timed with the first shipments of Itanium workstations and servers from system manufacturers.
Meanwhile, other OS vendors, namely Microsoft, seemingly are dragging their feet.
Microsoft's Windows 2000 will offer support for Itanium, but, as reported by ZDNet, the first true 64-bit Windows from Microsoft will not come until next year.
In order to use Windows 2000 for Itanium, the OS will have to be recompiled to turn on 64-bit addressing features already present in its code. However, the first fully from-the-ground-up 64-bit version of Windows, code-named Whistler, is not due until March 2001, sources said. Microsoft has announced that it will offer a beta version of the current Windows 2000 release recompiled for 64-bits next quarter. It expects to release the OS to manufacture in the second half, also shipping in step with Itanium.
Analysts believe that Intel, so far, has been doing a good job to support the open-source community. Its most recent push into open source, however, may be greeted with some suspicion, said Dan Kusnetzky, director of operating environment and serverware at IDC.
"When we ask people what kind of hardware they're going to use, 95 percent say Intel. Intel would like to keep that going," he said.
All Intel has to do is to keep momentum behind its hardware in the Linux community is "continue to do what it has been doing, which is investment in companies and development (to maintain compatibility with Linux)."
However, Kusnetzky warned of the potential for overzealousness when it comes to open sourcing. The open-source community would likely welcome Intel software, he said. However, "I don't think they (Intel) could do more without the community saying, 'What are you trying to do by us?'"
What does the community say it wants from Intel?
Access to "driver source, and complete interface specifications for the hardware (Intel and IBM) ship, would make us happy and increase the size of their markets," said Eric Raymond, an open-source leader and head of the Open Source Initiative.
Additional reporting done by Mary Jo Foley, ZDNet News.
Developed by Intel Architecture Labs, CDSA adds a layer of security to operating systems. CDSA can either be built into an operating system or used as a toolkit to augment an OS, the company says.
Intel's CDSA technology isn't some throw-away software that no one uses. A number of PC makers support it. They include IBM,
Those Linux-tuned features will be present in nearly all of Intel's most important products, including its processors, chip sets, input/output standards and security technology, Pope said.
Trillian, which began as an effort by Intel to develop Linux for Itanium, may pay off in spades for the company. The group delivered a development release of Linux for Itanium last February.
