Intel unveils Linux ambitions

Intel intends to help move Linux into the midrange space and to make it the standard development environment for Unix applications.

Will Swope, vice president of Intel's architecture group, said during his keynote at Linuxworld: "Linux is a core technology in the internet economy, with 38 per cent of new internet servers containing Linux. But unless the industry comes together to produce more complex, business-oriented solutions, Linux won't move to the next step within business."

"We're thinking the intermediary goal would be to focus on the development environment and to make Linux the standard Unix development environment. If, and only if, the development environment is robust and scalable, then Linux will be a top-tier port for software developers," he added.

In an attempt to highlight Linux's potential in the midrange space, he demonstrated a pair of IA-64 Itanium-based servers clustered using software from Mission Critical Linux, which streamed video to clustered Pentium 4 processor-based machines.

In a second demonstration, Swope also showed off a four-way Itanium-based Linux cluster powering a simulation of a mach-10 shock wave colliding with a gas bubble.

Advanced Network Services for Linux, which provides load-balancing, fail-over technology and other network connection services, were also unveiled as was the Intel Early Access Service. This enables Linux developers to test, optimise and debug applications running on Itanium processors.

Finally, Swope announced the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) award scheme. This will award an individual or group in the open source community a prize of $25,000 every six months for the "most impactful idea" on how Linux can be used in a business environment.

OSDL was formed last year by Intel, Hewlett Packard, IBM and NEC, to try and boost Linux's performance.