The fight between the Old Guard and the Young Turks at HP over Merced still seems to be on with a vengeance. Earlier this year, we reported that the company was advising customers to go direct to McKinley IA-64 architecture, jumping over Merced. (Story: HP confirms Merced retreat) Not long after that, HP said Merced was a clear part of its strategy (Story: Intel will do Merced) And now, just a few days after the Young Turks said HP will ship Merced machines in the mid-2000 time frame, a senior executive, presumably from the Old Guard, has advised customers to forget Merced and wait for McKinley, according to a story on Cnet. The wire reports HP's Eric Clow advising customers to stick with the PA-RISC platform until McKinley arrives. Oops. When Carly, HP's new CEO finds out about this, she is probably going to send Eric for re-education. We understand there is something of a cultural revolution going on within HP, to weed out unreconstructed suits. ® See also HP says it's on target for Merced next year Merced just a development platform for McKinley Secrets of Intel's IA-64 roadmap revealed