Tricord Systems Inc, the Plymouth Minnesota-based server maker that’s been showing major losses since 1995, is to throw in the towel on hardware and concentrate instead on its software. The company, which has just reported losses for the year of $15.2m on revenues of $51.2m, had been looking into the possibilities of a finding a strategic partner with the help of Smith Barney Inc (CI No 3,007), but that effort has not been successful, said John Mitcham, president and chief executive officer. Tricord has canned its next generation PentiumPro symmetrical multiprocessing servers, codenamed C5, that were due to be released in the second quarter of this year. Despite a tremendous market potential, said the company, the costs associated with bringing the products through final development onto the market exceed the available resources of the company. Instead Tricord plans to focus on its distributed file system software and its related input/output expertise for Windows NT environments. Last October it acquired distributed file system software through buying the technology assets of Pasadena, California-based Reliable Distributed Information Corp. The RDI software provides a single data image for files spanning multiple storage nodes interconnected on a system area network. The strategy change means a reduction in the company’s workforce of about 100 people. Tricord, which was founded in 1987 and has its European headquarters in Woerden, Netherlands, will continue to manufacture and sell its current Pentium-based PowerFrame servers throughout this year, and will honor service and support agreements.
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