Microsoft, SAP push Itanium software

Microsoft and business software giant SAP plan to offer prototype versions of their software to work with Hewlett-Packard servers using Intel's new Itanium 2 processor, the companies said Thursday. The cooperative program, which begins this month, is geared to encourage customers to adopt the new software and hardware.

Programs such as SAP's R/3 accounting and inventory management software or Microsoft's .Net Server 2003 operating system must be overhauled to take advantage of the Itanium family of processors, which work very differently from Intel's Pentium and Xeon products. --Stephen Shankland, Special to ZDNet News