Assuming you mean the non-memristor version of the machine?
Microsoft are not a hardware company by any stretch. There are a few hardware engineers in small areas (Xbox, handsets, Surface), but almost none in server. Apple mostly make consumer facing equipment, again, no enterprise/server heritage.
If not HP, then who has a true system development background?
Well, not sure why you say not Intel. They are one of the few that actually does systems development.
IBM makes the most sense. They've distances themselves from x86, and still maintain a system development mindset, including heavy investment in big data processing. They have the OS development skills.
After IBM, there are a few maybe's:
Google would be a realistic company too, as they have shown system engineering skills, end to end, including a lot of OS development work.
Facebook - continue to do full system engineering in areas they believe are differentiators. I could see them doing something similar for analytics crunching.
Outsiders:
Oracle could be viable. There must be a few Sun guys left there that do system development, and they need to show they are still relevant in big data, but they don't spend much in R&D.
Cisco - continue to do full system engineering, but would likely break this by making it too network centric. No real OS development heritage.
Broadcom - continue to expand their areas. This would be a huge step for them in systems integration, but not big at all in terms of silicon and interconnects.
Microsoft are not a hardware company by any stretch. There are a few hardware engineers in small areas (Xbox, handsets, Surface), but almost none in server. Apple mostly make consumer facing equipment, again, no enterprise/server heritage.
If not HP, then who has a true system development background?
Well, not sure why you say not Intel. They are one of the few that actually does systems development.
IBM makes the most sense. They've distances themselves from x86, and still maintain a system development mindset, including heavy investment in big data processing. They have the OS development skills.
After IBM, there are a few maybe's:
Google would be a realistic company too, as they have shown system engineering skills, end to end, including a lot of OS development work.
Facebook - continue to do full system engineering in areas they believe are differentiators. I could see them doing something similar for analytics crunching.
Outsiders: Oracle could be viable. There must be a few Sun guys left there that do system development, and they need to show they are still relevant in big data, but they don't spend much in R&D.
Cisco - continue to do full system engineering, but would likely break this by making it too network centric. No real OS development heritage.
Broadcom - continue to expand their areas. This would be a huge step for them in systems integration, but not big at all in terms of silicon and interconnects.