SYSTEMS

JAPAN'S top computer maker Fujitsu is in talks with US hi-tech giant Sun Microsystems over business tie-ups but said no decision had been made on integrating high-performance server operations. The company was responding to a report in Japanese business daily The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, which said the two firms had reached a basic agreement to unify designs for Unix mainframe servers in 2004 and consolidate production of high-performance servers at Fujitsu. The alliance would give the two companies a share of more than 40 per cent of the global Unix server market, much more than either Hewlett-Packard or IBM, the newspaper said. Fujitsu said in a statement that it "has enjoyed a close partnership with Sun Microsystems" over a number of years.. "The two companies have had a number of discussions about the benefits of working together to deliver the best solutions to our customers," it said. "At the present time, however, nothing has been decided with respect to expanding the scope of our current relationship with Sun." Fujitsu and Sun have already joined hands in Unix server business, including the use of Sun microchips in the Japanese firm's Unix PRIMEPOWER series.