Compaq Computer Corp is set to announce a high-end addition to its Tandem Himalaya range today. The S72000 range, already shipping, speeds up performance by 20% over the previous top-of-the-range system by adding faster cache memory and new hardware memory management functionality to the S-Series servers. The systems use the MIPS R10000 chip running at 200MHz, and can scale to up to 4,080 processors. Maximum main memory is now 2Gb, up from 1Gb in the S70000 series. Increasing the cache size will boost the performance of OLTP applications and the 2Gb main memory increase will speed up memory resident database applications, according to Compaq.
Systems are built up using two-processor modules, each run in lockstep and executing the same instruction stream out of local cache. Their output is continuously compared, and if there is a disagreement the processor modules is immediately shut down. Compaq says the new modules will be priced similarly to existing ones, and that S70000 and S72000 modules can be mixed and matched in the same cabinet. The current Himalaya range also includes the S7000 server, using the MIPS R4400 chip at 150MHz, and the S700, a two-processor configuration using either S7000 or S70000 processor modules. S700s can be upgraded, but have to be converted, with appropriate license fee charges, to an S7000 or S70000.
Future Himalaya systems will use the Alpha chip rather than MIPS, the company has said, and Compaq is in the process of porting the NonStop operating system over to the new architecture. Those systems aren’t expected to come onto the market until 2002, however.
