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ROUND ROCK, TEXAS -- A full day of interviews at Dell Computer's headquarters here is more than enough to get a firm grip on what executives consider the key virtues of the company.

One vice president after another will recount Dell's success in listening to the customer, going after mature markets, and attacking competitors with a healthy dose of pragmatism. Dell employees will even offer a laugh over the mundane simplicity with which the company attacks the hardware market.

So, when IDG News Service recently sat down with Dell Chair and Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell, it seemed appropriate to ask him about some of the not-so-mature markets Dell has pursued. In the case of the Linux desktop, Dell pulled back on large investments in 2001 as demand faltered, Dell said. But this failure has not stopped the company from attacking the nascent markets for high-performance computing clusters and for Linux clusters running Oracle database software. Dell painted a picture of where and when he draws the line on new ventures.

IDGNS: Dell traditionally goes where the money is and toward established markets. You are currently going after things like Linux clusters running Oracle and high-performance computing pretty heavily, which seem to be more of niche areas right now. When do you decide to enter these types of businesses?

MD: Customers decide more than we do. If enough of them want it, that really motivates us to do things.

We have actually been playing around with this clustering market for quite a number of years with a bunch of Ph.D.s we have. It's a powerful idea for us because essentially what you are doing is taking industry-standard building blocks, putting them together, and building a supercomputer.

IDGNS: On the storage side, you have partnered with EMC to offer your customers a full spectrum of storage from the low to the high end. Why not create a deal with a Unix server vendor as well, to fill out your product line and perhaps open up new services opportunities?

MD: Who do you have in mind?

IDGNS: A company like Sun or IBM sells lots of boxes onto EMC.

MD: We are selling some EMC storage that attaches onto a Sun box, but mostly where we see Sun is with Linux replacing Sun. In that sense they are more of a competitor.

IDGNS: Obviously, the Unix guys are competing with you, but Dell had been competing with EMC on storage as well. When do you decide the time is right to partner and when the time is right to compete?

MD: First of all, we are focused on things that are broadly accepted standards. I see proprietary Unix going away and being replaced by Linux and Windows. That is kind of what the market trend really is. I grant you there are customers still buying those things, but I think they continue to get pushed up to the higher end, and the volume Unix market will be predominantly Linux on high-volume servers like those from Dell.

IDGNS: When do you see 64-bit computing being a reality for Dell then?

MD: Of course, it all depends on applications and the cost of the processor. Right now the number of applications available for 64-bit is kind of emerging.

We will be in that market. It will start out as a high-end market. As there is more volume, it could get down into the more mainstream types of applications.

IDGNS: Have you made a commitment to a company like [original equipment manufacturer] Newisys to ship servers based on AMD's 64-bit Opteron chip?

MD: No. Our strategy has not really changed. We could have 64 bits in both servers and desktops. It's clearly more likely to occur first on the servers. I don't hear a lot of people asking for 64 bits on the PC.

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