Integrated Micro Products Ltd, Consett, County Durham has developed what it calls the industry’s first line of scalable Unix systems based on third-generation fault-tolerant technology with the fault-tolerance implemented entirely in hardware, eliminating the need to modify applications or operating systems and enabling Unix enhancements to be incorporated easily. Integrated Micro calls its technology OpenFT3: the architecture has two components, the fault-tolerant core and redundant input-output subsystems. The core consists of two or three CPU sets, each containing one or more microprocessors and associated cache and primary memory. All major components within each input-output subsystem are duplicated as are peripheral subsystems and disk. OpenFT is adaptable to different CPU chips, architectures and versions of Unix or other operating systems. The first member of the line is the XTM, scalable from one to two 68040 fault-tolerant processor complexes. The line will ultimately include a high performance system scalable to eight logical processors as well as a low-cost version. The system, running Unix System V, includes a single or dual 33MHz 68040 sets offering 27 MIPS to 54 MIPS, between 16Mb and 256Mb of main memory and dual fault-tolerant input-output buses; OEM volume pricing starts at $50,000 for a 27 MIPS system and $60,000 for 54 MIPS with Unix.
