Ashlee Vance

Hewlett-Packard Co. faces an overhaul in its high-end servers that analysts say could be a big factor in determining whether the acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. is a success.

Hewlett-Packard Co. faces an overhaul in its high-end servers that analysts say could be a big factor in determining whether the acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. is a success.

Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to announce two new technologies in the coming weeks, one of which will help it catch up to rivals IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., and another that could help it take a step past the competition.

Sun Microsystems Inc. is making the move to multicore chips in a big way, promising users a new breed of processor that appears to differ from anything discussed thus far by rivals such IBM Corp. and Intel Corp.

Sun Microsystems Inc. has laid out details of a new program called project Orion that will see the company ship all of its key software products packaged with the Solaris operating system in synchronized quarterly releases.

Acknowledging that skepticism about Sun Microsystems Inc. is "at an all-time high," the company's top executive brushed off threats to Sun's business posed by industry-standard hardware and software and told financial analysts Monday that Sun will continue to thrive.

Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to announce two new technologies in the coming weeks, one of which will help it catch up to rivals IBM Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. and another that could help it take a step past the competition.

IBM Corp. has pepped up a low end server in its Unix line with the addition of one of the latest Power4 processors, the company said Friday.