Marlborough, Massachusetts-based fault-tolerant Unix systems builder Sequoia Systems Inc, has the potential to be a $300m to $400m company within five years, chairman and chief executive Gabriel Fusco believes. The company is predicted to turn in sales of around $85m for its year to June. Sequoia, which has had its share of brushes with bankruptcy in the past, is now growing at around 30% per annum, and the market that it dominates, fault-tolerant Unix systems, is lucrative enough to support a number of players. Sequoia’s current series 300 and 400 fault-tolerant multiprocessors, based on Motorola Inc 68030 and 68040 CPU technology respectively, address the mid-range of that market, where its main competition is Stratus Computer Inc’s Intel Corp 80860-based machines and Tandem Computers Inc’s MIPS Computer Systems Inc RISC line.
Theoretical 64 CPUs
The 400 can be configured with a theoretical 64 CPUs – though linear performance gains are curtailed at 28 processors, and the largest installed machine uses only eight 68040s (downsized from 16 68030s). By next year the company will be offering a dual-processor strategy, now Hewlett-Packard Co is hard at work on a high-end implementation of Sequoia’s fault-tolerant architecture using its Precision Architecture RISC processor. In return, Sequoia has given up any ambitions it may have had in the telecommunications market, but will sell the thing in competition with Hewlett-Packard elsewhere. That box, the Series 1000, won’t be around until next year. In the meantime, Hewlett-Packard is marketing Sequoia’s existing 300 and 400 systems under its own name. With its RISC strategy taken care of by Hewlett-Packard, Sequoia has also handed over future development of its Motorola Inc family to Samsung Electronics Co, this time in exchange for the Korean marketplace, which Sequoia will stay out of. Samsung is readying a low-end Series 40 system using up to four 25MHz 68040 processors. It’ll be announced next month, and is due to ship in August. Supporting up to 100 users, a Unix variant, running Sequoia’s implementation of System V.3.2, called Topix, will start at $159,000. The Pick version – Pick being Sequoia’s traditional operating system – comes in at $310,000.
Few bright hopes litter the computer industry graveyard in greater numbers than companies that set out to become a force in fault-tolerant computing – names like Tolerant Systems, August Systems, NoHalt Computers, Synapse Computer Systems, even the UK’s own Computer Technology Ltd flew up in a blaze of light only to collapse down again and either alter their mission or vanish altogether. There remain just three serious American contenders – the ones born at the start of the 1970s and at the start of the 1980s that everyone knows, plus Sequoia Systems Inc. Sequoia hasn’t looked back since it caught the eye of Hewlett-Packard Co: William Fellows has been listening to its chairman, Gabriel Fusco.
The series 40 will appear in 33MHz and 50MHz guises over time. A version of Sequoia’s current line, using a next-generation 68060 part from Motorola may also result from its collaboration with Samsung. Another catch hanging on Sequoia’s belt is Japan’s Toshiba Corp, which, though not an OEM customer, is currently working on a Sparc RISC version of Sequoia’s fault-tolerant stuff. Toshiba will have exclusive marketing rights in Japan for that box, Sequoia will be free to market it elsewhere. The company has also established a relationship with Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd, which is to market Sequoia machines in Japan and some Far East countries. The deal, as it stands, does not include a development agreement, but Fusco doesn’t rule that out for the future: Sumitomo is a MIPS RISC licensee. Sequoia promises compliance with Unix System V.4 by September, a transaction processing monitor – either Unix System Laboratories Inc’s Tuxedo or Transac Corp’s Encina – by the end of the year, and support for Mumps within 90 days. Oracle, introduced on to its machines last autumn, is expected to become the predominant database fairly quickly
– less than 5% of the installed base run Sequoia’s proprietary database system. Sequoia’s business is done primarily in the US, though last quarter 47% of its sales were international, Fusco claims, with 80% of those international sales done in Europe: 55% are direct, 45% go through third parties, including systems integrators.
Opened in the UK
The relationship with Hewlett-Packard (which Hewlett-Packard has cemented with an 8% equity stake), will contribute around 5% to Sequoia’s figures this year, expected to rise quickly to 20% when the Precision Architecture fault-tolerant boxes come on stream. The company claims a total of 330 machines installed at 165 sites. Sequoia employs around 400 staff, and has recently opened in the UK, with a 12-strong Hayes, Middlesex-based operation under Guy Nordgrove. It also has its eye on winning itself a piece of the German and Polish markets. The company is also doubling its Massachusetts floor space as of June 15 when it adds the adjacent offices in Marlborough to its empire.
