Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) is introducing a long-awaited upgrade to its Unix operating system (OS) and launching new, affordable Integrity servers in a direct challenge to rival products from IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc.

HP Thursday is introducing an Integrity rack server with a starting price below US$5,000 and an Integrity blade server below $4,000.

Integrity servers, powered by Intel Corp.'s Itanium processors, have been traditionally sold as high-end products used for mission-critical business applications. By offering Integrity servers at these prices, HP is aiming at entry-level servers from Sun, HP executives said.

"We believe, with our entry class servers, it's very much targeted at taking that away," said Nick van der Zweep, director of Business Critical Systems at HP. "We think Sun's in a vulnerable position in the entry class right now."

The new HP-UX 11i v3 features enhanced virtualization management capabilities, which should give it an advantage over IBM, said van der Zweep. IBM often touts its legacy in virtualization dating back to its mainframe computers, but van der Zweep said HP has been more adept at bringing virtualization to the server platform.

The Unix operating system is a standards-based OS, but IBM, HP and Sun each add unique features to differentiate their products.

HP has encountered delays in the development of HP-UX v3, which was originally scheduled for release as far back as late 2004. But HP, instead, focused on adding new features as they became available to HP-UX 11i v2 rather than hold them for version 3.

"HP has deliberately not made this a 'must upgrade to today' release," said Gordon Haff, senior analyst at the research firm Illuminata Inc. "The case here is that upgrade when you're ready."

HP-UX 11i v3, shipping now at a list price of $150 per core, does have enhanced features over v2, such as running software applications 20 percent to as 30 percent faster than on version 2, HP claims. Notably, it runs Java applications faster, another dig at Sun, which developed the Java programming language.

"It's not really clear what's new here," said Tom Goguen, vice president of Sun's Unix operating system, Solaris.

Solaris 10 is a free download that can run on 735 different brands of servers, including HP, while HP-UX only runs on HP servers, Goguen said. Solaris 10 already includes a virtualization manager called Containers, and has security features he considers "second to none."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.