Expected since their tie-up on Bravo Unix (CI No 3,320) Digital Equipment Corp will today announce it is to OEM a new generation of Sequent Computer Systems Inc’s ccNUMA servers built upon the 64-bit Intel Merced chip. Capable of running Unix and Windows NT, the servers, which Sequent now calls NUMACenter, aren’t due until 2000. They will incorporate up to 64 four-processor nodes and by then should be running Bravo and something like NT 6.0. Distributed shared memory configurations will be available across a subset of nodes. Before that box – which uses a third- generation of the company’s IQ-Link ‘Sting’ technology – Sequent will this fall begin shipping a Deschutes version of NUMACenter with up to 64 next-generation Pentium Pro Deschutes CPUs running multiple partitioned copies of its Dynix/ptx Unix and Windows NT, sharing systems management, backup and storage. Initially application servers and databases in mixed environments will be linked with ethernet, with fibre channel and switches to follow. They will be available as new versions of Sequent’s NUMA-Q ccNUMA servers or as SMP servers using Intel SHV boards. Sequent will get a shock if DEC’s new owner Compaq Computer Corp and sibling Tandem Computers Inc manage to settle of some Bravo API dependency with Santa Cruz Operation Inc UnixWare; after all Sequent boss Casey Powell shunned SCO as too low-end – and Solaris for that matter – for DEC’s clutches.
