As we suspected (CI Nos 3,154, 3,101), Unisys Corp and Data General Corp have fallen out of bed. Unisys has got Windows NT religion and nixed plans to OEM DG’s ccNUMA Unix server technologies while DG has scrapped the notion of using Unisys’ 533Mbps Synchronous Coherent Memory (SCM) bus in 10-way vanilla SMP servers. Unisys, which intends to build clustered systems with Tandem Computer Inc ServerNet interconnect boards and Microsoft’s Wolfpack software running on NT said that ccNUMA just isn’t a long-term strategic fit. Unisys let a previous OEM deal with ccNUMA competitor Sequent Computer Systems Inc go by the wayside to take up with DG. Meantime, DG told us that it still hasn’t decided where to go for the technology to link Intel Pentium Pro SHV boards in vanilla SMP systems, although not so long ago it told us it had plumped for Corollary Inc’s Profusion crossbar switch (CI Nos 3,154, 3,081). The Corollary architecture creates eight-way systems by linking two four-way SHV boards. They’re seen as Windows NT vehicles, but can also run SCO UnixWare at a pinch. DG’s ccNUMA AViiON servers are a pure Unix play as ccNUMA’s seen as lying well outside NT’s functional domain for the foreseeable future. DG has already introduced versions of Advanced Logic Research Inc’s six-way Pentium Pro SMP server technology as the AV 6600, running DG-UX or NT (CI No 3,153). DG says volume shipments of its ccNUMA AViiON servers dunning DG-UX are due to begin the fourth quarter, about a year later than Sequent began shipping its higher-end NUMA-Q servers. The AViiONs will be fitted with SCO’s ccNUMA-enabled Gemini whenever that eventually comes to pass.
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