Open source software being fitted for Intel Itanium 2 chip on HP-UX, Windows XP MySQL on Tuesday will announce a port of its MySQL open source database to the HP-UX operating system on the 64-bit Intel Itanium 2 chip, with a Windows XP version soon to follow.The 4.0 version of the database for Hewlett-Packard HP-UX 11.u v2 on Itanium 2 will be downloadable Tuesday at https://www.mysql.com/downloads. A version for Windows XP, while available now in a pre-released form for on Itanium 2, will be production-ready in the second quarter of this year, said Zack Urlocker, vice president of marketing at MySQL.“We think Itanium 2 is a great platform, and it really drives down the total cost of ownership,” Urlocker said. MySQL already has ported its database to the Linux platform on Itanium 2. HP-UX is getting a port prior to Windows XP because that is where demand has been, Urlocker said.MySQL’s backing of Itanium 2 boosts price performance for high-end applications such as reservation systems, e-commerce systems, and high-volume transaction applications, according to Urlocker.The company offers its database under a dual-licensing format. For commercial, closed-source applications where source code will not be posted, a commercial license is needed for $450 per server. The software is available for free for open source applications. MySQL’s database porting announcement comes on the heels of the release of a study by Evans Data on Monday that found that MySQL usage grew by more than 30 percent in the last year.“I think there’s just a drive in the enterprise where people are trying to lower their cost and Linux has paved the way,” Urlocker said in response to the Evans study. Software DevelopmentTechnology IndustrySmall and Medium Business