[Info-vax] HP wins Oracle Itanium case

[Keith Parris]

On 8/6/2012 1:39 PM, JF Mezei wrote:
> ultradwc at gmail.com wrote:
>
>> I told everyone years ago that OpenVMS would be around as long as the government was using it, which we heard years ago was into the 2020s ...
>> All you doom sayers have been worrying over nothing.  OpenVMS will be around another 10 years and then ported if the government wants it to be.
>
> Will be around ? yes.
> Will be supported? Yes.
>
> Will be developed ?  Big question. It isn't even clear if VMS is
> already in maintenance mode.

Maintenance mode would be bug-fixes-only. OpenVMS development certainly 
doesn't match that description, by any stretch of the imagination.

> Will run on new hardware: HP's current answer on this is a definitive
> "VMS will not be ported beyond IA64.  (this policy extends to HP-UX as well)

"Beyond IA64" is too far out in the future at this point. The OpenVMS 
Roadmap at http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/pdf/openvms_roadmaps.pdf is 
clear that OpenVMS development work for new hardware is very active, 
including, to name a few:
-Poulson-based blades and rackmount servers
-3PAR storage
-FireMV graphics
-Solid-state disks (SSDs)
-Virtual Connect FlexFabric

> By stretching development, this ensures that when a new generation of
> IA64 comes out, it is already late compared to other platforms. Tukwila
> being a very good example.
 >
 > Yes, compared to the previous generation of IA64, the new generation
 > will show great improvements.  But compared to market place, IA64 is
 > already years behind the competition.

Tukwila was in 65 nm process and the contemporary Power7 was in 45 nm 
process. Poulson is in 32 nm process, same as Power7+ is expected to be 
when it is released. So the situation you described is no longer the case.