Old Intel enemy of Sun becomes new Sun friend

THE INTEL EXECUTIVE WHO WAS accused by Compaq's Eckhard Pfeiffer of competing with his customers said today Sun's CLDC hotspot and his firm's Xscale chips will allow a new wave of innovation (InnovationWatch™) to flow across the mobile device segment.

Hans Geyer, who was general manager of Chipzilla Europe was stunned to silence when Pfeiffer accused his firm of using the Intel Inside campaign to anti-competitive effect against Compaq, in 1994.

But now he is the general manager of the firm's PCA Components group, and is welcoming a Sun initiative to promote Java as software for mobile devices.

Odd this, because it was also Geyer who told us back then that his firm's primary target in the computing business was Sun Microsystems. Back then, he was talking about workstations, but the general tenor of the conversation was clearly anti-Sun.

Geyer said today that the "popularity and prevalence" of the Java platform when used with Xscale chips was a "powerful combination".

It's nice to see Intel and Sun talking nicely to each other again.

Last Friday, Sun's shares on Wall Street (ticker: SUNW), soared through the ceiling to close at $5.33 when rumours spread that the firm was once more the subject of takeover speculation.

This is what Hans Geyer told us about Intel's position in the marketplace in our old magazine PC Independent News, dated 19 November 1991.

See Also
Sun forced to use Intel chips because AMD Opteron too good
Intel introduces three Xscale PDA chips
Etre 1994
Compaq plays ketchup with botched plan