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The SCO Group has released a Linux server operating system for the 64-bit Intel Itanium processor, the company announced Tuesday.

SCO Linux Server 4.0 for the Itanium Processor Family is based on UnitedLinux 1.0, the Linux operating system being marketed by a coalition of four Linux companies, in an effort to promote Linux interoperability and to compete with Red Hat, the U.S. market leader for Linux.

The new product will have the "broadest interoperability" with other UnitedLinux products, according to an SCO press release.

The $999 price tag for the server operating system includes a license for installation on up to four CPUs and a year-long subscription to the SCO Linux Update Service. Other support programs are available, and the server is currently available from SCO resellers.

Making Deals

SCO hopes to ink deals with original equipment manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard and Unisys, said Porter Olsen, product manager for SCO Linux. Itanium is a significantly smaller market than Linux on x86, 32-bit systems, he said, but SCO hopes that deals with those OEMs will drive interest in the new SCO Itanium server.

"We see it mainly as an OEM market," OLsen said. "We're working with our OEM partners to make it clearly available with those deliveries."

The SCO Linux Server 4.0 for the Itanium Processor Family supports Itanium 2 systems, features the Linux 2.4.19 kernel, and has "sophisticated and flexible" clustering features, according to an SCO press release.

"The new server OS "was developed with the enterprise user in mind, meeting the highest standards of reliability, availability, stability, and security," said Opinder Bawa, senior vice president of SCO's engineering and global services, in the press release.

The product "delivers the performance that system administrators want, while its foundation in UnitedLinux guarantees world-class application development, certification and deployment," he added.