MICROSOFT AND INTEL have teamed up with SAP and will provide R3 and other products on Windows Advanced Server Limited Edition ? its proto 64-bit OS for the Itanium microprocessor.
The Windows ASLE is the 64-bit version of Microsoft's OS for the Itanium family of Intel chips.

The move is described as an "early access" programme and will be launched when HP's Itanium 2 is released this month. [We thought it already was released, Ed.]

The firms said that the same products will be supplied when other computer vendors introduce their Itanium II machines.

One of the SAP components is Advanced Planner and Optimiser (APO), which the German firm claims will use the Itanic's large memory capacities, particularly in combination with databases, such as SQL Server from MS, which can sit in such memory.

Customers have to apply for access, an unusual way for SAP to sell its products, and have to fill in a nomination form at_ http://service.sap.com.

This "nomination period" will end when Microsoft releases Windows .NET Server 2003. µ