In yet another indication that software fault-tolerance is so difficult to do that any company achieving it successfully has a precious asset on its hands, Novell Inc’s Unix Systems Group has turned to Marlborough, Massachusetts-based Sequoia Systems Inc, which has been under something of a cloud for a couple of years after accounting irregularities, to help it create a fault-tolerant release of Unix System V. Sequoia, which has been back on an even keel for a quarter or three now, also told Dow Jones & Co that it will see a three-fold jump in fourth-quarter profit on higher turnover. Under the agreement with Novell, the latter will incorporate Sequoia’s core software technology into a new release of Unix System V. The company says net profit for the quarter to June 30 was between $2.2m and $2.5m compared with $750,000 a year ago, on sales of between $12.2m and $12.5m. The comp any, which already has Hewlett-Packard Co as an OEM custo mer for its syst ems, says it is in talks with other major operating system and computer makers to license its technology, possibly selling hardware for its operating software to server builders.
