Project Monterey

Logo for Project Monterey.

Project Monterey was an attempt to build a single Unix operating system that ran across a variety of 32-bit and 64-bit platforms, as well as supporting multi-processing. Announced in October 1998, several Unix vendors were involved; IBM provided POWER and PowerPC support from AIX, Santa Cruz Operation (SCO) provided IA-32 support, and Sequent added multi-processing (MP) support from their DYNIX/ptx system. Intel Corporation provided expertise and ISV development funding for porting to the new IA-64 platform, which had not yet been released at that time.^[1] The focus of the project was to create an enterprise-class UNIX for the IA-64, which at the time was expected to eventually dominate the UNIX server market.

In May 2001, the project announced the availability of a beta test version AIX-5L for the IA-64, basically meeting its original primary goal. However, Intel had missed its delivery date for the Itanium (the initial IA-64 hardware) by two years, and the Monterey software had no market.^[2]

With the exception of the IA-64 port and Dynix MP improvements, much of the Monterey effort was an attempt to standardize existing versions of Unix into a single compatible system. Such efforts had been undertaken in the past (e.g., 3DA) and had generally failed, as the companies involved were too reliant on vendor lock-in^{[citation needed]} to really support a standard that would allow their customers to leave for other products. With Monterey, three of the vendors already had a niche they expected to continue to serve in the future: POWER and IA-64 for IBM, IA-32 and IA-64 for SCO.

The project rapidly became unmanageable^{[citation needed]} as all involved attempted to find a niche in the rapidly developing Linux market and focused their efforts elsewhere. Sequent was acquired by IBM in 1999. In 2000, SCO's UNIX business was purchased by Caldera Systems, a Linux distributor, who later renamed themselves to SCO Group. In the same year, IBM eventually declared Monterey dead.^[3] Intel, IBM, Caldera, and others had also been running a parallel effort to port Linux to IA-64, Project Trillian, which delivered workable code in February 2000. In late 2000, IBM announced a major effort to support Linux.^[4]

The breakdown of Project Monterey was one of the factors leading to a lawsuit in 2003, where SCO Group sued IBM over their contributions to Linux.

IBM sold only 32 licenses of Monterey in 2001, and fewer in 2002.^[5][2]

References

1. ^ Hughes-Rowlands and Chibib (August 31, 1999). "Project Monterey" (PDF). Project Monterey presentation. http://www.csee.umbc.edu/help/architecture/idfmontereylab.pdf. Retrieved 2007-05-20. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Jones, Pamela (August 25, 2005). "2002 IBM Internal Email on Project Monterey - "No One Wants It"". Groklaw. http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2005082506163768. Retrieved 2007-05-20. 
3. ^ Jones, Pamela (April 25 2005). "More Evidence Project Monterey Partners Knew Linux Was the Future". Groklaw. http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20050425222843204. Retrieved 2007-05-20. 
4. ^ "IBM to spend $1 billion on Linux in 2001". CNET News.com. 2000-12-12. http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-249750.html?hhTest=1. Retrieved 2008-08-19. 
5. ^ Borchers, Detlef (2005-08-28). "SCO vs. Linux: 32 mal Monterey". Heise Online. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/63260. Retrieved 2007-05-20.