Some people think the battle between engineering workstations equipped with Unix and those built around Windows NT is over. I think it's just beginning.

Let's face it: NT has been coming on strong. Consider that market researchers at the Aberdeen Group (Boston) expect NT workstation sales to increase by some 30 percent annually for the next three years, rising to more than 2.2 million seats in the year 2000. By contrast, Aberdeen predicts unit sales of Unix workstations will drop by a whopping 65 percent, to 279,000 annual units, by the end of the decade.

The reason for this shift is obvious.

NT workstations are more than adequate for all but the most computationally intense applications.

Indeed, with the recent release of Intel's Xeon microprocessor, vendors of NT workstations have a power price-performance message to tell. Xeon is an impressive updating of the basic Pentium II. The processor is the first to use Intel's Slot 2 package. It also includes beefed-up L2 cache, a 100-MHz processor bus and the ability to address multiple gigabytes of memory. Intergraph Computer Systems, HP, Compaq and others have been announcing a seemingly endless stream of Xeon-based workstations equipped with Windows NT. Due to chip supply issues, the systems are coming to market more slowly than expected.

More ominously, NT proponents are facing a looming software gap that will give the Unix folks a chance to battle back in a big way. The problem is that buyers are beginning to wonder whether they should hold off on planned workstation purchases until Microsoft's 64-bit version of Windows NT is ready.

At the same time, Sun is making hay out of a brilliant new family of Unix systems. Introduced in January, Sun has had a huge success with its Ultrasparc II-based line of "Ultra" workstations. In particular, the Ultra 5 and Ultra 10 models are tearing up CAD territory.

The clearest indication of Sun's strength are the most recent workstation-market figures from Dataquest, which show Sun beating out Hewlett-Packard for the top position based on revenue.

However, HP led in total systems shipped. HP's critics complain that those numbers are misleading because the company ships both Unix and NT boxes. Indeed, it's only fair to note that HP has a big winner on its hands with its NT-based Kayak workstation family.

Will the wait for 64-bit NT put a further crimp in the NT camp? It's highly likely. Furthermore, I believe reports of the death of the Unix workstation have been greatly exaggerated.