Dayton, Ohio based NCR has announced two new additions to the WorldMark range, the 4700 and the 5100 models, following the launch of the eight-way WorldMark 4300 symmetrical multiprocessing server earlier this year. The boxes, designed for commercial massively parallel processing, are being promoted as servers for decision support datawarehouses. The company says the new models are eventually intended to replace its current 5100S and 5100M models released back in September 1994. The WorldMark 4700 is meant for small entry-level data warehouses and data marts and the 5150 WorldMark is intended as a large-scale system for global companies. Both use NCR’s Bynet and Teradata technology to cluster nodes together. An enhanced version of the Bynet middleware offers increased bandwidth capabilities and the ability to scan more nodes and respond to requests faster. NCR also uses its Teradata database technology to partition memory, claiming faster handling of requests than rival offerings from the likes of Informix Software Inc and Oracle Corp, which NCR says are more susceptible to I/O bottlenecks. The WorldMark 4700 is described as a starter system to cater for users in the 25 to 100Gb range. It boasts four processors per node, using Intel Pentium Pro 200 MHz microprocessors with 512Kb cache and up to two nodes per cabinet. The 5150 model scales up to 128 connected nodes; for use with databases over the 600 Gb level and is capable of handling warehouses of up to 100 terabytes. The company says the 5150 model will be ready for coexistence with its WorldMark 5100 server by mid-1998. It is currently working on the necessary middleware to allow the two boxes to work alongside each other and allocate resources more efficiently. The WorldMark 4700 starts at $158,000 with a typical installation costing $315,000. The WorldMark 5150 starts at $500,000 and a typical package with 8 nodes, three quarters of a terabyte hard disk and 400Gb of raw data costs in the region of $1.9m.
