Although Sequent Computer Systems Inc and Intel Corp are about to toss their joint interactive multimedia development into a spin-out with funding to energise the initiative, Sequent warns that the venture is still very much at the evaluation stage. The market, it says, is moving much more slowly than either it or Intel expected, although it still expects to be in with a fair chance of getting the business at around half of the 40-odd accounts it reckons will be preparing for large-scale multimedia trials next year. Sequent has converted stripped-down Dynix/ptx Unix kernels to run on Intel’s Pentium-based Scalable Parallel Processor nodes running Oracle Corp’s Media Server. It has already delivered a small development unit to Intel and says a prototype system went out to Oracle a couple of weeks ago. The spin-out goes by the generic name Interactive Multimedia Server Co until the unit is given a name, probably at a meeting today which will establish levels of funding and focus. Having nothing big enough of its own to throw at these types of interactive multimedia trials right now, Sequent sees the combine as an ideal turnkey offering for more than just video-on-demand. Its symmetric multiprocessing Symmetrys – already being deployed with Oracle Media Server in some smaller trials – will be used as back-end database machines for handling ordering and invoicing in conjunction with the Scalable Parallel Processors.
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