H-P To Sell Oracle Database With Its Computers

Hewlett-Packard Co. Friday said that it will be the first computer maker to sell Oracle Corp._s 8i database software program preloaded with some of the computers it sells to large businesses. The two companies will also collaborate on Oracle_s plan to produce a server computer, a powerful machine that runs networks but doesn_t require a full-blown operating system, like the Microsoft Corp. Windows NT. Oracle has its sights set on Microsoft and Windows NT, a product targeted at the business market that has been gaining ground in the low end of the computer market against various forms of the Unix, an operating system used to help run powerful computer networks. The announcement comes on the heels of a recent pact between Oracle and Sun Microsystems Inc., one of the largest makers of server computers that power the WWW, in which the two companies would work together on pairing a stripped-down operating system with Oracle database software. If Oracle_s deals with Sun and H-P bear fruit, they could obviate the need for NT, which competes principally with Sun_s own brand of the Unix operating system called Solaris and with Hewlett-Packard_s, called HP-UX. The Oracle-equipped computers H-P is selling is designed to be pulled out of the box and attached to a network. Products will be available in the first half of this year and prices will start at $7,500 for a low-end system, Hewlett-Packard executives said on a teleconference call.