Search engine specialist AltaVista Co. Tuesday revealed that it would lend the latest version of its search engine software Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HP-UX 11.0 operating environment this summer.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the companies said AVSE 3.0 will be the first search software to support 64-bit architecture. with the bundling of the software and the OS, customers will be able to quickly index and access information from multiple sources in hundreds of different file formats. The search capability will also make it easier for employees to find important business information and improve sales for e-commerce Web sites by delivering more relevant search results. The ultimate goal is to speed up the information gathering process by minimizing any work duplication an employee might go through. AVSE 3.0 is also currently available for HP Windows/NT and Linux. AltaVista, whose customers include such e-commerce heavyweights as Ariba Inc. and Ticketmaster, showed interest in the enterprise sector in June when it unveiled new software primed to help companies find data in 30 languages and over 200 file formats. Those two products included AV Enterprise Search, which appeals to employees inside the corporate firewall by enabling them to find information wherever it resides within company servers; and AV Personal Search, a desktop application that provides speedy search results from content on local hard drives.