Tandem Computers Inc and Chorus Systemes SA yesterday announced that they have agreed to develop technology for fault-tolerant computing in a next-generation Unix System V.4-based operating system using the Chorus/Mix Version 4 microkernel. The operating system will run on Tandem’s R-series RISC-based Unix machines. The partnership is a coup for Chorus, which will get back the fault-tolerant technology added to the microkernel as a standard ingredient in its Chorus/Mix product. Chorus’s relationship with Unix System Laboratories Inc, its minority owner, is thought to have been a persuasive factor in Tandem’s decision to enlist the Paris company for the effort. A die-hard Unix System V.4 advocate, Tandem is interested in seeing its fault-tolerant enablers incorporated in the base operating system to save it from having to re-invent the wheel each time a revision is done, and to enable it to focus on true value-added differentiators. Tandem is hoping its alliance with Chorus will give it a lever with Unix Labs even though the latter has yet to indicate officially how it will treat the microkernel. Tandem declined to say whether the new operating system will come out on current orfuture Tandem Integrity machines, all of which are based on the MIPS Technologies Inc chips; no product is expected for at least a year. Chorus itself has done no reference implementation for the MIPS architecture yet, though Inria, the French research institute, previously implemented the microkernel for a MIPS-based Sony Microsystems Inc News workstation. The Inria version will be used in the development work, as will existing Integrities.Tandem’s move reinforces current thinking, which sees microkernel system software as very much an up-and-coming trend across the industry. Tandem expects the technology to eliminate any unplanned downtime its users may currently experience, as well as any planned downtime needed for housekeeping chores like changing operating systems on the fly, a key facility in any critical application from company-wide electronic mail to reservations. Tandem and Chorus, which have not started the design work, will begin with the current Chorus/Mix V.4 Release 1.2 and upgrade to the upcoming Release 2.0 in January. A major upgrade of is expected to appear later next year.
