Sequent Computer Systems Inc hopes its agreement to pay $2m cash and 300,000 warrants for Sequent shares at $21.50 a time to the remaining Chen Systems Inc share-holders (CI No 2,942) will enable it to expand from its high-end server business into the mid-range and entry-level enterprise server market running Windows NT. It is definitely not a UnixWare shot, it says, as its move deprives Santa Cruz Operation Inc of another system for its Unix aspirations. Sequent, proud of its own Dynix/ptx Unix and not currently one of Santa Cruz’s Big E gang or a Gemini development partner, thinks neither UnixWare nor its Hewlett-Packard Co-derived 64-bit follow-on has any future in glasshouses. However, it is working with Santa Cruz to have its ccNUMA -Q interconnect supported in Gemini. At the same time Santa Cruz is supposedly using Chen technologies to scale UnixWare to support 32 CPUs from 10 currently (CI No 2,906). Sequent’s initial low-end foray, selling boxes under a deal with Tricord Systems Inc, fell apart some time ago. Sequent will sell the current Chen-1000 server with NT and pick up the 20 resellers in 15 countries Chen claims to have amassed. It plans to expand that roster to create a significant indirect channel for a new generation of multi-quad low-end systems it will forge from what it says it already has on the drawing board, plus the Chen technologies. Sequent will also use Chen hardware and software for scaling linearly above eight processors in next-generation enterprise servers, although it is unclear how this will play alongside the company’s ccNUMA-Q implemention supposedly being prepared for the end of the year.
