Like Tandem's prior high-end machines, Cyclone cabinets were styled with much angular black to suggest strength and power. Advertising videos directly compared Cyclone to the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Mach 3 spy plane. Cyclone's name was supposed to represent its unstoppable speed in roaring through OLTP workloads. Announcement day was October 17 and the press came to town. That afternoon, the region was struck by the magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake, causing freeway collapses in Oakland and major fires in San Francisco. Tandem offices were shaken, but no one was badly hurt on site. This was the first and last time that Tandem named its products after a natural disaster.