From: shuford@cs.utk.edu (Richard Shuford)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.stratus
Subject: Datamation article
Date: 4 Jan 93 04:08:53 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.stratus
Organization: Info-Stratus (queries to Info-Stratus-Request@mike.lrc.edu)


Greetings of the New Year, A.D. 1993, to the Info-Stratus community!

A while back we were discussing the architectural strategies taken by
vendors of fault-tolerant and high-availability computer systems.  If
you are not already aware of it, it may interest some of you to know
that \Datamation/ magazine published articles about the RISC products
of both Tandem and Stratus.

I refer to

   "Tandem Races to RISC" by Jeff Moad.  \Datamation./
    November 15, 1991, pp. 28-32.

    (The cover of this issue featured Jim Treybig, CEO of Tandem
    Computers Inc, leaning on his tandem bicycle but wearing a
    suit, adjacent to a Nonstop Cyclone/R.)

and

   "Stratus Spreads RISC Bet" by Dwight B. Davis.  \Datamation./
    September 15, 1992, pp. 28-36.

    (This issue's cover depicts William E. Foster, CEO of Stratus,
    casually dressed, perched atop an X/AR cabinet.)

The periodical's editorial staff may be contacted thus:

    Datamation Magazine
    275 Washington Street
    Newton, Massachusetts  02158  USA

    voice +1 617/964-3030
    fax   +1 617/558-4700

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are a few miscellaneous points culled from the \Datamation/ Stratus
article. Most of the following are direct quotes; you'll see easily
enough which parts are my comments.

 ...RSS

----------

"In 1991, the worldwide fault-tolerant market totaled $1.7 billion,
according to International Data Corporation.  Tandem Computers Inc.
dominated the field with a 71.4% market share, according to IDC.
Stratus Computer Inc. held most of the remaining market, with a 21.5%
share.  Sequoia Systems Inc. and Digital Equipment Corporation were
virtually tied with 3.5% and 3.4% shares, respectively, and UK-based
Integrated Micro Products squeaked on the list with a 0.2% share."

----------

"[In 1991], while Tandem suffered a $66.5 million loss on revenues
of $1.93 billion, Stratus reported earnings of $49.7 million on
revenues of $448.6 million."

[Yes, I suppose that is old news.  Would somebody care to supply a
more recent snapshot of the financial picture? ...RSS]

----------

"A key element in Tandem's Unix strategy is the generation of work-
around solutions to many of the Unix [kernel] panics that would
otherwise crash the systems.  'We have solved 86% of the panics in
Unix,' says Bret Martin, strategic program manager of Unix systems at
Tandem.  When one of these panics occurs, the [Tandem] Integrity system
recognizes it as a problem it can circumvent, and the system continues
to run, Martin explains.  Stratus just traps panics and freezes the
transaction that caused the problem, [Martin] says."

"For its part, Stratus prefers to trap panics and solve them manually
to ensure that corrupted data aren't overlooked and propagated, says
James Utzschneider, manager of market planning at Stratus, [who]
questions whether the 86% of panics Tandem claims to work around are
among those that occur most frequently."

[elsewhere in the article, Gary E. Haroian, a senior vice president
of Stratus, is quoted as saying, "We're doing lots of things to
harden the FTX Unix kernel and to cut the panics."]

----------

"Of Stratus's nearly 200 independent software vendors, value-added
resellers, and systems integrators, only 15% have converted their VOS
[operating system] applications to run under FTX, says Paul O'Brien,
Stratus's North American manager for business development and indirect
sales.  'But we're actively pursuing Unix, and all of our new partners
are developing software for the FTX environment.'"

----------

"By the end [of 1992], Stratus expects to offer Novell Inc.'s NetWare
local-area network operating system on its FTX machines, allowing them
to reside in the most popular of LAN environments.  The initial NetWare
supported will just be the vanilla version available to all, but [Larry]
Sherman [director of software product marketing] says Stratus may work
with Novell to add more fault tolerance to the network.

[Is NetWare for FTX out yet?  Has anybody thought about trying to
implement Banyan Vines on FTX?  Or, better yet, Vines for VOS? ...RSS]

----------

[The article ends with this bit of inspiration from Mr. Foster.]

"Continuous availability is our only mission.  No matter what the big
guys do, we will be better.  If not, we will deserve to lose."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 ...Richard Shuford
    shuford@cs.utk.edu
    Info-Stratus List Coordinator
Newsgroups: comp.sys.stratus