Yes Tandem is gone, 3 billion from Compaq captured its technology.
In July of '96 Gilder said " A precursor of the new computer architecture is Tandems ServeNet system ". The link below is one link that explains what ServerNet is......
www2.tandem.com
Tandem Unleashes Power of ServerNet Clustering Technology for Highly Scalable Windows NT Server Clusters
New six-port ServerNet switch enables commodity-priced, high-performance cluster switching fabrics
CUPERTINO, CA-May 19, 1997-Tandemr Computers Incorporated today announced that systems vendors can now leverage the power of its revolutionary ServerNetT clustering technology-rapidly emerging as the de facto high-speed interconnect solution for Windows NTr Server cluster computing-to build highly scalable clusters of commodity-priced servers using the company's new six-port ServerNet switch.
Licensed by most leading personal computer server vendors, ServerNet technology cost-effectively interconnects as few as two servers for high availability, or up to dozens of servers for scalability and increased performance. The new six-port switch enables these larger implementations. Tandem software drivers for ServerNet technology will be packaged with Microsoft's "Wolfpack" clustering software when it is released this summer.
Using ServerNet technology and the new six-port switch, several leading vendors have recently demonstrated high-profile, multinode cluster database solutions running on clusters of four or more servers. For example, NEC and Fujitsu demonstrated a four-node Windows NT Server cluster running Oracle Parallel Server at Oracle Open World Japan in April. On May 14, Tandem demonstrated a 2-terabyte data warehouse application (with a 30-billion row fact table) on a cluster of 16 four-processor Windows NT Server-based systems running Tandem's new NonStopr SQL/MX database management system.
Multinode UNIXr system-based clusters are also made possible by ServerNet technology and the new six-port switch. At the UNIX Computing Forum in April, Tandem demonstrated SCO UnixWare running on a cluster of six ServerNet technology-enabled Compaq Proliant servers.
Said Jerry Peterson, senior vice president and general manager of Tandem's ServerNet business unit, "Clustering will change the face of computing by applying commodity-priced processing power to enterprise-level applications, including large-scale decision support and Internet transaction processing. But to realize the full benefit of clustering, you need a competitively priced interconnect that is open, scalable, reliable, and high bandwidth. ServerNet technology is the first to deliver on all these points, which is why it is being embraced by such market leaders as Compaq, Computer Associates, ECCS, Microsoftr, NEC, Oracle, Siemens Nixdorf, and Unisys Corporation."
ServerNet architecture explained
Specifically designed for use as a system area network (SAN), ServerNet technology was originally developed for Tandem's massively parallel systems. Based on a flexible "switching fabric" as opposed to a traditional LAN architecture, ServerNet technology uses inexpensive, intelligent ASIC switches (each with six low-latency switched ports) to move data in an efficient any-to-any fashion between cluster components.
With the introduction of the new six-port ServerNet switches, ServerNet technology will now cost-effectively support the building of very large clusters. The new ServerNet switches can be cascaded to form an enormous switching fabric supporting as many as one million networked elements, including servers, storage devices, and input and output devices. As a cluster grows, each new ServerNet switch adds its considerable (1.3 gigabits per second) bandwidth to the whole, allowing an aggregate throughput of 150,000 gigabits per second to be achieved (150,000 times 1 gigabit Ethernet). Fault tolerance can be achieved by the use of dual, or mirrored, ServerNet switching fabrics.
Economics of clustering
The costs of implementing ServerNet technology are in line with the commodity pricing of Windows NT Server solutions. For the larger clusters enabled by the new six-port ServerNet switch, ServerNet technology provides a single, high-speed interconnect for all cluster elements. Thus servers can directly connect to massive amounts of storage via a ServerNet switching fabric, eliminating the separate networks traditionally required to connect storage resources to multiple nodes. Leading storage vendors are currently building products to connect directly into a ServerNet switching fabric.
Availability
The new six-port ServerNet switches and ServerNet PCI adapters are available now to systems vendors from Tandem's ServerNet business unit.
End-user organizations can obtain ServerNet switches from systems partners, including Compaq, NEC, Siemens Nixdorf, and Unisys Corporation in new products to be announced in the near future.
Founded in 1974, Tandem Computers Incorporated designs and delivers technology solutions that companies rely on to compete in a business world that runs 24 hours a day. A US$1.9 billion company headquartered in Cupertino, California, Tandem has offices, strategic partners, and providers in more than 50 countries around the world.
So ServNet was/is ascendant, but it is still proprietary, not an open standard, many of the qualities of this ascendant technology can also be said of the open standard Fibre Channel. I have written to G Gilder asking him to consider writing about the Fibre Channel and what he might think of it From my point of view it fits the big picture that Gilder paints; Clustering, network storage easily accessed, speed, scalability, teleputers, etc. SI and the net have many excellent sources for background on the fibre channel. If you haven't yet heard about Fibre Channel it might be worth taking some time to read and learn about.......... here is a good link to get stared on
geocities.com
And here is a quote that hopefully will show how FC can do the same things that ServerNet can do?
Fibre Channel In Clustered Environments (Computer Technology Review, Summer 1997)
Quotes from article: "Most of the cluster offerings this year fall into one main category: operating system level with message passing, most notably Novell's Wolf Mountain, Microsoft's Wolfpack, Sun's Full Moon, Digital's TruClusters and IBM's HA/CMP. All of these architectures support multiple cluster interconnect types and offer roughly equivalent functionality over time. While there are several competing technologies for the cluster interconnect, one is emerging as the clear leader: Fibre Channel."
"In general, the more widely supported a cluster interconnect is, the greater the competition; this results in lower costs and more features. Of the competing cluster technologies, Fibre Channel has garnered the most support. Today, more than 100 vendors support Fibre Channel as a standard interconnect. These vendors are lead by Compaq, Sun, HP, Digital and IBM. Each vendor has announced support for Fibre Channel, and each has announced their own cluster solution. On the software side of the equation, Microsoft and Novell have announced cluster technology and both have Fibre Channel compatibility."
"An important advantage of specialized hardware is the support of resources which cannot support higher level protocols such as disk drives. Both SCSI and Fibre Channel support a high-reliability direct connection to disk drives. These connections allow multiple nodes within the cluster to directly access data storage without the burdensome overhead of intermediary file servers and their protocol overhead."
"More than 100 companies are currently developing Fibre Channel products, which is driving prices down to the commodity levels of SCSI and Ethernet. An estimated 100,000 Fibre Channel connections were sold in 1996, and 1997 estimates top 500,000. All those sales mean competition, and rapidly falling prices."
"Today, high-performance, proprietary connections are relatively expensive, costing as much as $4,000 per node. Add to this the cost of additional storage connections and the reduced reliability of twice as many physical plugs and wires, and the proprietary solution begins to pale in comparison to standard networking and especially to Fibre Channel-based solutions."
- Scott Ruple, Vice-President of Marketing at G2 Networks, Inc.
What do you think? Would Gilder approve of FC? He has never written on the subject that I know of. |
