Data General Unveils Eight-way Enterprise NT Server
Business Wire - November 17, 1997 10:28
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 1997-- COMDEX --
AV 8600 available with powerful fibre-channel storage
Data General Corporation today further strengthened its leadership position in the enterprise Microsoft NT Server computing marketplace with the introduction of its most powerful NT server to date, the AViiON AV 8600. The AV 8600 supports up to eight 200MHz Intel Pentium Pro processors, each with up to 1MB L2 cache, and up to 8GB of ECC memory in a rackmounted chassis. In addition, the new server can be used with a full range of CLARiiON storage devices including Data General's fibre-channel disk arrays. The server was unveiled at Comdex, the computer industry's largest trade show. "Data General continues its lead in providing enterprise computing customers with scalable and highly available servers and storage systems to run mission-critical applications," said Dave Ellenberger, vice president of Data General's NT Business Unit. "In fact, the NT marketplace is the fastest growing part of our business, and we expect continued acceleration with the release of the Enterprise Editions of Windows NT and SQL Server." According to recently released 1996 shipment revenue figures from International Data Corporation, Data General has become the worldwide marketshare leader in NT systems selling between $50,000 and $100,000 and is second worldwide in systems selling between $100,000 and $250,000. John Miner, vice president, Intel, and general manager, Enterprise Server Group, said, "Given its proven expertise in building scalable SMP systems based on Intel architecture, Data General's new eight-way AV 8600 will provide an outstanding platform for running enterprise computing applications." "Customers are now deploying larger, mission-critical applications using Windows NT Server and SQL Server, and Microsoft is responding with Enterprise Editions of both products," said Sid Arora, product manager for SQL Server at Microsoft. "Today's announcement is well-timed, and the AV 8600 will no doubt be an excellent platform to deliver the benefits of the Enterprise Editions and enhance Data General's position in this growing
rket." The AV 8600 can be used with the full range of CLARiiON storage devices, including up to three powerful new fibre-channel based CLARiiON 3000 Series disk arrays. The 30-slot Series provides up to 100MB per second bandwidth. "Data General was the first to support NT servers with the performance and high availability features that fibre channel storage systems can provide," said Mr. Ellenberger. To insure high availability for business-critical applications, the AV 8600 ships standard with fully redundant hot swappable power and cooling; and automated recovery from CPU, memory, and disk or I/O channel failures. The new server also includes Data General's automated problem detection software service which supports remote diagnostics and machine-initiated call-out to worldwide country service centers. For businesses that need to have their Windows NT Enterprise Edition applications running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the new AViiON server can be configured in Data General's unique NT Cluster-in-a-Box solution. With NT Cluster-in-a-Box, two AV 8600 systems with a total of up to 16 200MHz Pentium Pro processors can be combined with a fault tolerant CLARiiON RAID technology storage system and the company's NTerprise Manager systems management software in a pre-configured rackmounted system. "Data General is still the only computer vendor to offer Microsoft Cluster Server in a single rackmounted solution that comes pre-assembled and pre-tested so that users can simply plug it in and turn it on," said Mr. Ellenberger. In addition to the powerful eight-processor version, which utilizes the boardset technology from Axil, the AV 8600 also comes in two-, four- and six-processor configurations. The announcement of the new AV 8600 high-end NT server is the latest step in Data General's AViiON (SMP) symmetric-multiprocessing roadmap. The company noted that AV 8600 customers, if they choose to, will be able to upgrade to Intel's next generation processors as they become available.
Pricing and Availability
The AV 8600 will be available in 30 days with estimated street prices for an AV 8600 server with two 200MHz Pentium Pro Processors starting at about $30,000. Systems with eight processors will start at about $55,000 estimated street price. The new eight-way Pentium Pro processor based server also will be available from Data General's OEM Business Unit. Data General (NYSE:DGN), based in Westboro, Massachusetts, specializes in servers, storage systems and related software and services for customers worldwide. The company reported revenues of $1.5 billion during fiscal 1997. Additional information on the company, its products, and services is available on the Internet at dg.com |
