That NUMA-Q prototype that Sequent Computer Systems Inc is building to test the viability of Windows NT on its ccNUMA architecture servers should be functioning by May, the company says (CI No 3,098). Presumably by tinkering with NT’s Hardware Abstraction Layer – the only piece of NT developers have access to – Sequent’s Kirkland, Washington-based lab is attempting to get NT running across up to four NUMA-Q quads, which use re-designed versions of Intel Corp’s four-way Pentium Pro SHV boards. However it advises that it doesn’t expect to be able to string more than two NUMA-Q quads together within the next year or so. For one, there simply aren’t the NT applications or databases that can scale any farther; that kind of scalability remains firmly in the Unix camp.
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