Compaq's Hot Plug PCI Enables On-Line I/O Replacement Improving Enterprise Server Availability; Compaq Partners with Leading Vendors Chairs New PCI SIG Workgroup To Develop Open Industry Standard.HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 24, 1996 - Maintaining its commitment in industry-standard, high-availability solutions, Compaq Computer Corporation (company) Compaq Computer Corporation - The largest US manufacturer and vendor of IBM PC compatible personal computers and servers. Compaq was started in 1982 by three ex-Texas Instruments employees. Quarterly sales $2499M, profits $210M (Aug 1994). http://compaq.com/. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :CPQ CPQ Compaq CPQ Conseil du Patronat du Québec (Canada) CPQ Configure-Price-Quote CPQ Conseil de Presse du Québec (Québec Press Council, Canada) CPQ Companion Parrot Quarterly ) -- the world's leading server vendor -- today announced its strategic roadmap to enable the development of an open industry-standard specification for Hot Plug PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). technology. Hot Plug PCI will provide customers increased system availability and non-stop serviceability in business critical computing environments. In its dedication to open standards Specifications for hardware and software that are developed by a standards organization or a consortium involved in supporting a standard. Available to the public for developing compliant products, open standards imply "open systems;" that an existing component in a system can be replaced , Compaq is working with key industry vendors to facilitate a standard for Hot Plug PCI technology. Part of this effort includes the establishment of a PCI SIG workgroup to create a recognized standard for Hot Plug PCI technology. This technology will allow customers to expand, upgrade, or replace PCI cards without taking the server off-line. Initially, Hot Plug PCI will allow customers to replace failed or pre-failure PCI cards without taking a server down. Later, Hot Plug PCI upgradeability and expansion -- which are also to be part of the workgroup's proposed specification -- will give customers even greater flexibility as their needs grow. As chair of the workgroup, Compaq will propose that a standard be established in the same manner as the original PCI specification to help bring product to market faster. The PCI SIG developed version 2.1 of the industry's open standard PCI specification. Compaq, one of the five founding member organizations, will work with other members of the PCI SIG Steering Committee steer·ing committee n. A committee that sets agendas and schedules of business, as for a legislative body or other assemblage. steering committee Noun and Hot Plug PCI workgroup to identify requirements for the Hot Plug PCI specification. Compaq's own solution will consist of both hardware and software being developed in conjunction with leading operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. vendors, independent hardware vendors (IHV (Independent Hardware Vendor) An organization that makes electronic equipment. It implies a company that specializes in a niche area, such as display adapters or disk controllers, rather than a computer systems manufacturer. Contrast with ISV. ), and semiconductor manufacturers to meet customers' needs for high-availability and fault tolerance See fault tolerant. (architecture) fault tolerance - 1. The ability of a system or component to continue normal operation despite the presence of hardware or software faults. This often involves some degree of redundancy. 2. in distributed enterprise environments. Compaq plans to introduce the first implementation of Hot-Plug PCI technology -- Hot PCI Replacement -- in the first half of 1997. Technology Roadmap The context of product management The existence of product managers in the product software industry indicates that software is becoming more and more commercialized as a standard product. The first implementation of Hot Plug PCI -- Hot Plug PCI Replacement -- will enable users to replace a failed or pre-failure device card without taking the server off-line and incurring costly system downtime. Users equipped with redundant PCI connections and network failover capabilities will be able to maintain user connections and services while the I/O (Input/Output) The transfer of data between the CPU and a peripheral device. Every transfer is an output from one device and an input to another. See PC input/output. I/O - Input/Output problem is being rectified. Follow-on products will include Hot PCI Upgrade and Hot PCI Expansion. Hot PCI Upgrade will allow users to upgrade existing PCI devices and drivers with new versions without system downtime. Similarly, Hot PCI Expansion will permit users to install additional previously uninstalled I/O cards and driver software without taking the server off-line. Compaq's decision to develop Hot Plug PCI technology is focused on addressing a key customer issue: as computing environments grow more complex, the business costs of unplanned system downtime are soaring. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a 1994 Gartner Group (company) Gartner Group - One of the biggest IT industry research firms. Address: Connecticut, USA. study(1), companies stand to lose as much as $250K in employee productivity for every one percent of system downtime. The increasing financial stakes of unplanned downtime in business-critical environments, which are compounded by the time spent tracking the source of network or component failures, are creating a greater need for high- availability solutions -- like Hot Plug PCI -- that are immune to subsystem failures. "As companies continue to move business-critical applications to networks based on industry standard platforms, they are requiring the same levels of availability and fault tolerance found on more costly, proprietary platforms," said Gary Stimac, senior vice president and general manager, Compaq Systems Division. "By driving the development of a Hot-Plug PCI industry standard, Compaq is extending its leadership in delivering enterprise-class high- availability solutions and leveraging its partnerships to bring innovative new technology to market that meets our customers needs, and can be used as a universal solution across the industry. In fact, Hot Plug PCI technology surpasses current midrange offerings and demonstrates Compaq's prowess to meet the company's objectives of becoming the safe alternative to traditional costly proprietary midrange platforms. In addition to bringing value-added technologies to market quicker, Compaq is also focusing on customer investment protection by proposing that the specification ensure Hot Plug PCI is fully backwards compatible See backward compatible. backwards compatible - backward compatibility with today's PCI cards. Compaq is also proposing to make it possible for today's PCI cards to gain hot plug capability through software enhancement." Hot Plug PCI enhances Compaq's portfolio of industry leading high availability Also called "RAS" (reliability, availability, serviceability) or "fault resilient," it refers to a multiprocessing system that can quickly recover from a failure. There may be a minute or two of downtime while one system switches over to another, but processing will continue. solutions delivered to date, which include RAID, hot plug hard drives, redundant power supplies, and Server Array Clustering solutions such as Standby Recovery Server and On-Line Recovery Server. Later this year, Compaq will introduce another component of its new server clustering See clustering. solution for Microsoft Windows See Windows. (operating system) Microsoft Windows - Microsoft's proprietary window system and user interface software released in 1985 to run on top of MS-DOS. Widely criticised for being too slow (hence "Windoze", "Microsloth Windows") on the machines available then. NT Server based Refers to hardware or software that runs in the server. Contrast with client based. on ServerNet interconnect technology from Tandem. This follows Compaq's continued participation as a core partner in helping Microsoft develop its WolfPack technology, a standard for Windows NT (Windows New Technology) A 32-bit operating system from Microsoft for Intel x86 CPUs. NT is the core technology in Windows 2000 and Windows XP (see Windows). Available in separate client and server versions, it includes built-in networking and preemptive multitasking. Server clustering, scheduled for availability in the first quarter of 1997. Compaq also recently introduced several new high- availability solutions including Remote Insight Board and Redundant Netelligent NICs. Compaq Remote Insight Board is a hardware and software independent solution that provides uninterruptible server access and alerting functions for remote locations. Redundant Netelligent NICs ensure users do not lose their network connection in the event of a NIC (1) (Network Interface Card) See network adapter. See also InterNIC. (2) (New Internet Computer) An earlier Linux-based computer from The New Internet Computer Company (NICC), Palo Alto, CA. failure. Partnerships Play Key Role To develop a complete hardware/software solution and establish a Hot-Plug PCI standard, Compaq is leveraging its industry leading partnerships with IHV's such as Adaptec, Mylex, BusLogic, and SysKonnect, as well as with operating system vendors Microsoft, Novell and SCO (The SCO Group, Lindon, UT, www.sco.com) A leading vendor of Unix operating systems for the x86 platform. SCO had also offered Linux, but abandoned the line in the spring of 2003. The SCO Group is the combination of two companies: Utah-based Caldera, Inc. . Other hardware vendors are also expected to incorporate the technology into their product lines. Compaq is also working with select silicon vendors to make the Compaq-designed ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. technology widely available to the industry. Partner Quotes and Comments Adaptec "Compaq continues to advance the state of high-availability, high-performance servers. Designing fault tolerant The ability to continue non-stop when a hardware failure occurs. A fault-tolerant system is designed from the ground up for reliability by building multiples of all critical components, such as CPUs, memories, disks and power supplies into the same computer. servers with hot swappable components will make server upgrades and expansion simple and quicker. Adaptec will be an active supporter of the technology and as a member of the PCI steering committee will work closely with Compaq to quickly review the concept, and bring products to market."John Hamm ice President of Enterprise Business Unit Adaptec. BusLogic "BusLogic is pleased to be partnering with Compaq on this important announcement. The new Hot Plug PCI technology is a natural extension to BusLogic's broad line of Ultra SCSI host adapters and ASIC's. And because the technology supports existing PCI adapters, users will be able to take advantage of a wider range of solutions sooner." Al Wilson Chief Operating Officer Chief Operating Officer (COO) The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. and General Manager BusLogic Inc. Intel "Hot Plug PCI furthers the Intel architecture-based server marketplace as it improves manageability and reliability. With this new capability, companies will be able to take better advantage of improved system and processor performance without the risk of costly system downtime. Compaq's technical expertise will help drive the adoption of Hot Plug PCI as an open standard." Paul Close Co-Director, Server Architecture Lab Intel Microsoft "With the development of hot plug PCI technology, Compaq demonstrates its commitment to delivering a new level of industry standard, high availability options for enterprise customers. Microsoft plans to support the PCI standard in future releases of our operating system software technology." Rich Tong Division Marketing Manager, Desktop and Business Systems Division Microsoft Corp. Mylex "As one of the leading suppliers of RAID technology to the PC server market, Mylex is committed to meeting customer needs for fault tolerant computing. Compaq's Hot Plug PCI technology represents a major step forward in providing the industry with an innovative technology that addresses real-world user concerns for mission-critical computing." Al Montross President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Mylex Corporation Novell "Novell has built its leadership in network software by ensuring customers of reliable and available networks on which they can run their business. Compaq's PCI technology adds an extra level of availability to today's server hardware, enabling our two companies to offer even greater value to customers in complete network solutions. Accordingly, Novell applauds Compaq's leadership in establishing Hot-Plug PCI as an industry standard." Steve Markman Executive Vice President and General Manager Novell Products Group SCO "For customers deploying enterprise-level business-critical solutions, high availability is now a requirement rather than a luxury. SCO commends Compaq's Hot Plug PCI strategy and the initiative to drive that technology as an industry standard. As a leading provider of software systems for business critical environments, SCO is pleased to join Compaq in this initiative and plans to deliver Hot Plug PCI driver support in future Gemini products." Scott McGregor Senior Vice President, Products SCO SysKonnect "With the importance of mission critical applications, client/server technology continues to grow. It has become paramount to enhance the fault resiliency of network solutions in order to provide easier maintenance, less user disruption and more system up-time for the network. This alliance of major platform providers and network operating system An operating system that is designed for network use. Normally, it is a complete operating system with file, task and job management; however, with some earlier products, it was a separate component that ran under the OS; for example, LAN Server required OS/2, and LANtastic required DOS. developers is providing the fundamentals of the client/server network. SysKonnect's reliable, high-performance networking products will be a valued asset in connecting the nodes into this fault resilient environment." Thomas Ruf Vice President of Engineering SysKonnect Company Background Compaq Computer Corporation is the world's largest supplier of personal computers, offering desktop PCs, portable PCs, servers and options. The company reported 1995 worldwide sales of $14.8 billion. Compaq products are sold and supported in more than 100 countries through Compaq marketing partners and sold directly to customers through Compaq Direct Plus at 1-800-888-5858. Compaq provides 24-hour customer support and can be reached through the Compaq forums on America Online, CompuServe, Internet (http://www.compaq.com), and Prodigy, or by calling 1-800-OK-COMPAQ. Product information and reseller locations can be obtained by calling 1-800-345-1518. -0- Compaq, Registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. 1 Gartner Group Report, July, 1994 CONTACT: For further editorial information, contact: Compaq Computer Corporation David Anderson 713-927-8945 davea@netgate.compaq.com or Miller/Shandwick Technologies Marc Gendron 617-536-0470 mgendron@millercom.com |
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