On Wednesday, June 15, 2011Hewlett-Packard, one of the leading software firm filed a caseon Oracle Inc. over their decision to stop the development ofsoftware for Intel’s Itanium processor. This decision by Oracle canadversely affect HP sales as it uses this chip in its high-endservers. The first Itanium Processor whose codename was Merced wasreleased in 2001. As a matter of fact, according to the 2008 study,Itanium was the fourth most deployed microprocessor architecture forenterprise class system. This makes the system beneficial andprestigious for HP, Intel, and Oracle.

According to the statement released byHP, Oracle made the decision of stopping the development of SoftwareItanium on March 22. This was a breach of conduct on the part ofOracle and violates the professional commitments that Oracle had doneto HP and its customers. The statement also pointed out thatthis is a forbidden action on the part of Oracle to shift the HPcustomers to their own platforms. The lawsuit was filed by HP’seminent lawyers on Wednesday in Santa Clara, California’s SuperiorCourt. The lawsuit demands Oracle to reverse its decision as HPbelieves that Oracle is legally bound to continue the development ofItanium software.

On the other hand, Oracle has chargedHP’s claims as null and void. In fact, they even said that HP hadtricked them into signing a contract last September, which statedtheir support for Itanium. HP knew of oracle’s plan to shut downItanium support beforehand.

In a statement released by Oracle theyquoted, “We believe that HP specifically asked Oracle to guaranteelong-term support for Itanium in the September of 2010agreement because HP already knew all about Intel's plans todiscontinue Itanium, and HP was concerned about what would happenwhen Oracle found out about that plan.”On the other hand, no such officialstatement about Intel’s plan to stop the development of Itanium hasyet been released. Backfiring HP in its latest statement told that itis still committed to its long-term development plans whichinclude the development of the processor for Intel’s Itanium.Besides, they also stressed that like them Intel too has stressedmany a times in public about their commitment for the development ofItanium roadmap.

On the other hand, Oracle has reportedthat these statements are being made by HP to deceive its largecustomer base across the world. Oracle pointed out in its statementthat all the plans of HP will be revealed in the court as they havealready dug their own grave by filing this disgusting lawsuit againstOracle. They quoted “Intel's plans to end-of-lifeItanium will be revealed in court now that HP has filedthis utterly malicious and meritless lawsuit against Oracle.”