Conference kernel::csguk_systems

172.0. "April 12 Announcement" by KERNEL::ADAMS (Brian Adams CSC-Viables '833-3026) Wed Apr 13 1994 18:49

                  I N T E R O F F I C E   M E M O R A N D U M

                                        Date:     11-Apr-1994 05:55pmBST
                                        From:     John GRAY                     
                                                  GRAYJ AT A1_CHEFS 
                                        Dept:     Marketing
                                        Tel No:   (7)830 2385
                                        Doc No:   018529

TO: See Below

Subject: I: Summary of April 12 Announcements



Here is a short summary of the April 12 Announcements which you and your teams 
will find useful. Many thanks to LUKE CARROLL from our Ireland operation, who 
prepared this information.

WOULD YOU PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR TEAMS.

Regards John Gray.

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

APRIL 12 sees Digital announce the next phase of its exciting Open Client Server
roll out! Building steadily, announcement by announcement, we are lining up the 
most powerful set of offerings in today's I.T. Industry! 

WE ARE PLEASED TO INTRODUCE:

 DEC 2100 Server(Sable)
 ----------------------
 First in a new family of servers which combines high-performance Symmetric    
multiprocessing with low-cost I/O of PCI and EISA. This new server is the
 industries FIRST SMP, PCI system and comes will THREE-YEAR, on site, 24 hour
 warranty. The system supports up to FOUR processors and 2gb of Memory. The
 model A500MP supports 32gb of internal storage while the model  
A600MP(rackmount) supports 170gb. Both systems support more than 200gb of  
storage externally.  This Server will run all three operating environments
 OpenVMS, UNIX and Windows NTAS. The system also supports high-availability
 and features redundant power supply and sophisticated server management  
capabilities. The 190 MHz Alpha CPU can be upgraded to future generations.

 The DEC 2100 A500MP will ship with production quality OpenVMS V6.1 by mid
 April. Product quality NTAS(Daytona) will not ship until late June. Production 
quality OSF/1(uni-processor) will not ship until June. However, the Sable Early 
Order Programme will enable you to order NTAS or UNIX field test versions for
 shipment in April. The three part numbers with April delivery are as
 follows;
   - DY-251P2-A9  DEC2100 OpenVMS,128mb,4gb,CD,VGA,NAS200     30,340ir punt
   - DA-251PY-B9  DEC2100 OSF(NORAID),128mb,4gb,CD,VGA,NAS200 30,340ir punt
   - DN-251PY-A9  DEC2100 NTAS,64mb,2gb,CD,VGA                20,050ir punt

 From a competitive positioning perspective, the DEC 2100 Model A500MP is
   - Equal to the power of a HP150(1 cpu) at 1/3 the price.
   - 50% more performance than the SUN SPARCserver 1000(8 cpu) at 1/2 the price.
   - Better performance and expandability than the RS/6000 58H at 1/2 the price.
   - Better performance than the Compaq ProLiant(4 pentium) at same price.

 Other variations of the DEC 2100 server include;
   - Technical Developer's System with development and optimisation tools
   - Cluster-in-a-box i.e. 3 x DEC2100 A500's with dual power supply and UPS
   - Attractively priced, optimally configured Database packages

 VAX 4000-105A and MICROVAX 3100-95
 ----------------------------------
 Vax 4000 model 105A replaces the existing 4000 model 100A. The primary 
 difference is the NVAX chip being used which now provides Customers with
 a 30% performance improvement at the same price as existing systems.
 Additional features include more cache and support for a DSSI-to-SCSI
 converter. The system has an estimated database performance of 150 TPS(TPC-A).

 Microvax 3100 model 95 replaces the existing MVAX 3100 model 90. This system
 also provides Customers with a 30% improvement in performance at no extra
 cost. Estimated database performance is 127 TPS.

 Also announced are in-cabinet upgrades from the 4000-100 and -100A to the
 4000-105a and from MVAX 3100-40, -80 AND -90 to the 3100 model 95.


 AdvantageCluster Servers
 ------------------------ 
 Also known as workstation farms or UNIX clusters, AdvantageCluster Servers  
offers Customers an easy way to configure low-cost, high-performance servers to  
provide high performance at a low price with exceptional scalability.
 These packaged systems come preloaded with TechAdvantage software and eliminat
 the need for extensive cabling and hardware/software assembly. Customers have a
 choice of Ethernet or GIGAswitch(ATM ready) as the interconnect technology. 
 POLYCENTER tools for file system management are included in each configuration.
 The AdvantageCluster servers can act as a powerful multipurpose parallel  
processing system. Three classes of AdvantageCluster server are being announced
   - AdvantageCluster Compute Server
   - AdvantageCluster File Server
   - AdvantageCluster Available Server which included automated failover(Jun 94)

 DEC OSF/1
 ---------
 DEC OSF/1 is leading in standards compliance. Under the SPEC 1170(remember   
Cose) conformance is measured against most recent versions of common API's.
 DEC OSF/1 recently scored 99%. Higher than HP, SUN and IBM. DEC OSF/1 will
 be available in August 1994. An early release will be available in April.

 Key Features include ...
 Robust SMP implementation without impacting non-SMP system performance
 Support for SMP on the DEC2100, DEC4000-720, DEC7000-660, DEC10000-660 
 DEC OSF/1 will be qualified on 6 CPU's on a DEC 7000 with further expansion
 Capability to dynamically add device drivers without kernel reboot/rebuild
 High performance Local Area Transport(LAT) implementation
 Supports dataless local area network system configuration
 Dec Ada runtime library bundled with the operating system 

 OpenVMS
 -------
 The most significant point to note is that the OpenVMS operating system will  
now provide functional equivalence for VAX and ALPHA. OpenVMS V6.1 now provides
 the same user environment, security features, system management, programming
 environment and standards compliance on both VAX and ALPHA. Customers previous
 investments are completely protected. Only the CPU changes when upgrading  
between the two architectures. Customers can easily move existing applications
 to ALPHA platforms and take immediate advantage of the faster processor. If the
 program source is not available, 'Decmigrate' can be used to translate  
executables.

 Additional features include ...
 Virtual I/O cache now supported in OpenVMSclusters
 Clusterwide tape serving
 DEC AMDS, a real-time monitoring, investigation, diagnostic, correction tool 
 Distributed Computing Environment(DCE) V1.2 



 TECHNICAL INTEGRATION
 ---------------------
 To compliment our vast array of High Performance hardware platforms Digital
 is announcing new TechAdvantage packages which provide software 'suites' for
 technical application developers. This announcement will include

   - Fortran 90, which automatically parallelises software to run across      
multiple systems in a cluster or multiprocessors in an SMP system.

   - LSF(Load Sharing Facility), which provides the capability to cluster 
     Multi-vendor networked UNIX systems.

   - DXML(Digital Extended Math Library), which allows Customers to optimise
     the performance of technical applications running on Alpha.

   - KAP(Kuck Associates Prepocessor), which restructures Fortran and C
     application code for improved performance.

   - DEC C++ and C Developers extensions.

   - DEC FORTRAN, an implementation of full language Fortran 77.

 Four preconfigured TechAdvantage packages exist, each tailored for specific 
 Customer needs and orderable under a single part number.
 
 MESSAGING INTEGRATION
 ---------------------
 This announcement is primarily focused on DEC/EDI v2.0 for OpenVMS on ALPHA. 
 The new version offers up to five times performance improvement. Additional  
features include a new Windows GUI, new OSF/1 and OpenVMS Clients and ensures  
secure data and system resources and protected audit trails.

 ENTERPRISE OBJECTS
 ------------------
 DECmessageQ v3.0 adds servers support for new platforms including DEC OSF/1,
 IBM AIX, SUN Solaris, HP RISC and Windows NT. Also adds client support for
 MS Windows and recoverable messaging for all server platforms. 

 PRODUCTION INTEGRATION
 ----------------------
 TUXEDO on DEC OSF/1 systems provide a complete client/server OLTP environment
 for our UNIX platform. Version 2.1 supports Windows NT and Mackintosh desktops 
in addition to MS-DOS, MS-Windows and Ultrix and supports up to 14 different
 network protocols.



 NETWORK INTEGRATION
 -------------------
 The PATHWORKS software developers kit provides a full set of software  
development tools for developing client/server applications. Applications
 can be used in multivendor network environments and run across multiple
 network transports. The tool kit can be used to design and develop network,
 Object-oriented or management client/server applications. The SDK is supported
 on Windows, Windows NT, OSF/1 and OpenVMS. Available in June.

 WORKGROUP INTEGRATION
 ---------------------
 InfoBroker Server for OSF/1 and InfoBroker Client for Microsoft Windows are low
 cost software packages that provide workgroups with a simple, accurate and  
timely way to access information through a windows based application and a  
workgroup directory server. Typical information would include phone numbers,
 mail addresses, photos, and product details. InfoBroker can be customised to
 meet specific user needs. Available today.
 
 DEC FDDIcontroller/TURBOchannel adapter
 ---------------------------------------
 This adapter provides TURBOchannel to FDDI connectivity for Digital Systems and
 Workstations using a TURBOchannel I/O bus. They can also connect to servers    
directly in an FDDI dual ring without a wiring concentrator or hub. Available
 in May.

 New Infoserver 1000 and SW1000 Modules
 --------------------------------------
 These new plug-and-play products are intelligent SCSI controllers for the  
network and enable  the devices to be shared in a LAN without the need for any  
additional file  server. Available in May.

 DEC SNA 3270 application services
 ---------------------------------
 This middleware is used for client/server applications in an SNA network that  
link Digital servers and clients attached to IBM systems. Available now.

 EtherWORKS TURBO PCI and EISA adapters
 --------------------------------------
 These adapters provide high speed, 32 bit performance to take advantage of the
 fast PCI buses in the ALPHA and Intel based DECpc XL systems when used in  
office networks. The unique chip design supports high data transfer rates that
 produce high network performance and low system CPU utilisation. Availability  
is May.

 LeaseWorks
 ----------
 A new suite of flexible financing and technology acquisition programmes for
 Customers who want added protection for hardware investment, flexible  
acquisition and financing strategies and tools to lower costs. Available now.