Unlikely bedfellows given they compete in high-end SMP markets but Tandem Computers Inc and Pyramid Technology Corp are to enable users to create mixed networks of their respective Unix, NT and NonStop clustered systems by bridging the Tandem ServerNet and Pyramid Mesh interconnects and offering single systems image software to manage all of the connected resources. The companies will first bridge their system interconnects early next year, and use either a PCI card, ASIC chipset or switch, then create software using pieces of existing clustering and systems management technologies to create a software layer which will run across all systems in what Tandem calls the system area network. Given the rise of NT and large Unix installed base, the incentive, the two say, was to enable customers to configure and use mixed environments of Unix and NT clusters transparently. Neither could afford to do the work independently. There’s no timescale for the resulting software as its make-up apparently won’t be finalized until after the hardware bridge is complete. Pyramid parent Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG has also picked up Tandem’s ServerNet solution for creating clusters of it Intel Corp-based Primergy Windows NT servers using Microsoft Corp’s Wolfpack APIs.
