Informix Software Inc, Menlo Park, California and Cray Research Superservers, Beaverton, Oregon will collaborate in providing very large database scalability with Informix’s OnLine Dynamic Server 7.10 and the Cray Superserver 6400 (CS6400) system. The dynamic duo expect the collaboration to reap results by the end of the year and Informix has already installed a CS6400 system at its headquarters. The CS6400 system is offered with up to 64 SuperSparc Plus microprocessors and is tagged by Cray as the most scalable Unix-based symmetric multiprocessing server on the market. The two say they intend to conduct tests that encompass single and multiple instances of Online server querying of very large database. The ultimate collaborative nirvana is to support databases in the hundreds of Gigabytes range. The Dynamic Server itself is based on Informix’s planned next generation multi-threaded parallel processing architecture, called Dynamic Scalable Architecture. This architecture, the company says, incorporates Parallel Data Query, described as a first of a kind of parallel processing technology for open systems. Informix insists that Dynamic Scalable Architecture breaks the scalability barrier of previous Unix database architectures, which are unable to handle data volumes of enterprise-wide transaction processing, batch and Decision Support systems. Parallel Data Query, in turn, is said by the company, to provide tens to hundreds of times of performance gains over conventional databases because it breaks up long-running database tasks into sub-tasks then processing them in parallel. Cray Research Superservers, is a subsidiary of Eagan, Minnesota-based Cray Research Inc and is all that is left in the US of the old Floating Point Systems Inc, Beaverton.
