Data General Unveils AVFlex: Partitioning Services and Products Enhance the AViiON AV 25000 NUMA Server.WESTBORO, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 20, 1998-- DG/UX and NT Partitions Plus Modular Growth Provide Unprecedented Flexibility and Investment Protection At Data General's headquarters today, the company unveiled AVFlex(TM), a new set of services and products that provides customers with the ability to partition its new high-end AViiON(R) AV 25000 NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) A multiprocessing architecture in which memory is separated into close and distant banks. NUMA is similar to SMP, in which multiple CPUs share a single memory. However, in SMP, all CPUs access a common memory at the same speed. server into multiple DG/UX(R) and NT systems. In making the announcement, Data General said it has already begun shipments of the AV 25000 systems with CLARiiON(R) Fibre Channel storage. The AV 25000 is the industry's first NUMA technology-based server using new Intel(R) Pentium(R) II Xeon(TM) processors to ship. "To be successful in today's competitive marketplace, organizations must be able to react quickly to market conditions or technology changes," said Linda Mentzer, vice president of AViiON Marketing for Data General. "Sometimes expanding existing applications is the right answer, while at other times deploying new applications across the enterprise makes sense. In either case, AVFlex will make it easier." "With AVFlex, AV 25000 customers can seamlessly grow the system simply by adding building blocks that run DG/UX applications today and, if they choose, partition in the future to add new NT applications, leveraging their current investments in hardware and software," said Ms. Mentzer. Partitioning adds a new level of flexibility. By partitioning an AV 25000 server into centrally managed multiple systems, customers can develop, test, and deploy DG/UX or 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 applications without affecting their production environments. For example, customers can use a partition to fully test business-critical applications for Y2K See Y2K problem and Y2K compliant. Y2K - Year 2000 compliance on actual production hardware and data. Related Announcement At the briefing, the company also introduced Disaster Recovery Clusters, based on NUMA servers and CLARiiON Fibre Channel storage, which allow customers to mirror data and information up to 10 km from the organization's primary IT site. This enables businesses to quickly recover from natural or manmade accidents with minimal disruption. (See accompanying release.) The AVFlex Environment The AV 25000 server is the foundation for Data General's AVFlex computing environment. With AVFlex, users can take advantage of the modular growth of the AV 25000 server to adapt to changing business needs, mix AV 20000 (Data General's previous high-end NUMA server) and AV 25000 building blocks to gain maximum investment protection, partition AV 25000 systems to flexibly deploy DG/UX and NT applications, integrate systems management for cost-effective administration, and obtain consulting and implementation services for fast deployment. Partitioning Within a single DG/UX system, customers can use the DG/UX Class Scheduling Facility (CSF Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) Analysis Definition Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis is a laboratory test to examine a sample of the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. ) dynamic workload optimizer to maximize performance in complex environments by dedicating system resources (1) In a computer system, system resources are the components that provide its inherent capabilities and contribute to its overall performance. System memory, cache memory, hard disk space, IRQs and DMA channels are examples. to specific applications. For example, with CSF multiple instances of a database can be assigned to individual building blocks or even processors and adjusted as business needs warranted. Furthermore, through a suite of software products and services, AVFlex allows a single AV 25000 server to be divided into multiple independent partitions, each running its own copy of the DG/UX 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. or Microsoft Windows NT Server. Integrated Management Console A terminal or workstation used to monitor and control a network. See Microsoft Management Console. The AVFlex environment is managed by the M3W(TM) integrated management console, the new Web-based server manager software for the AV 25000. M3W allows the administrator to configure and diagnose AV 25000 servers from a Web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. on any desktop on the network, or directly from the management console, attached to the AV 25000. Through M3W, system administrators can also manage CLARiiON storage subsystems The part of a computer system that provides the storage. It includes the controller and disk drives. See storage system. , DG/UX, and NT systems. Deploying the AVFlex Computing Environment Data General offers a number of consulting and implementation services to help customers analyze their business needs and IT strategy, and plan and deploy their customized AVFlex environment, including: - Enterprise Technology Infrastructure Consulting: Assists customers in analyzing, designing, and planning a future-based IT Infrastructure that aligns with their business goals. - DG/UX Implementation Services for ccNUMA: Hardware installation and custom configuration of the basic ccNUMA environment. - Fibre CLARiiON for AViiON Services: Hardware installation and custom configuration of CLARiiON Fibre Channel disk array storage. - DG/UX Clustering Services for ccNUMA: Hardware installation and custom configuration of DG/UX Clusters. - AVFlex Partitioning Design Services: Customized services that include planning, configuration, and implementation of all partitions, and system management review. AV 25000: Third-Generation NUMALiiNE Technology Data General's AV 25000 server, based on third-generation NUMALiiNE(TM) technology, is built from quad-processor Scalable Building Blocks (SBBs) using Pentium II Xeon (processor) Pentium II Xeon - The successor to Intel Corporation's Pentium II processor. The Xeon has the same P6 core as existing Pentium Pro/Pentium II units, but it supports a 100 MHz system bus and offers as much as 2 MB of level 2 cache. http://intel. processors. SBBs are linked via a high-speed SCI (Scalable Coherent Interface) An IEEE standard for a high-speed bus that uses wire or fiber-optic cable. It can transfer data up to 1GBytes/sec. (hardware) SCI - 1. Scalable Coherent Interface. 2. UART. (Scalable Coherent Interface (hardware, protocol) Scalable Coherent Interface - (SCI) The ANSI/IEEE 1596-1992 standard that defines a point-to-point interface and a set of packet protocols. The SCI protocols use packets with a 16-byte header and 16, 64, or 256 data bytes. ) interconnect. Single systems can support up to 64 GB of memory and over 100 Terabytes (TB) of CLARiiON Fibre Channel storage through as many as 160 PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). 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 slots for balanced application performance and scalability. The AV 25000 continues Data General's high-availability tradition with dedicated diagnostics processors, AV/Alert(SM) "phone home" remote support, and redundant, hot-swappable power and cooling. The AV 25000 is available in a range of configurations starting from an entry-level four-processor, "NUMA-ready" server, through an economical configuration optimized for eight processors, and on up to a 64-processor, high-end enterprise server with mainframe levels of scalability in processors, memory, and I/O. NUMALiiNE technology-based systems will continue to aggressively implement the Intel processor roadmap. The NUMALiiNE architecture can logically address up to 1,024 processors. Availability and Pricing AV 25000 Servers AV 25000 servers in four-processor configurations began shipping at the end of September. Configurations with up to 32 processors will be available in the first quarter of 1999, and 64-processor configurations will be available in the second half of 1999. Pricing ranges from under $80,000 for a four-CPU "NUMA-ready" system with 512 MB of memory, to an optimized eight-CPU mid-range server with 1 GB of memory for under $165,000, and a 16-CPU server with 2 GB of memory for $512,000. A very large data center server with 64 CPUs, 8 GB of memory, an SCI Switch, and over one Terabyte of CLARiiON Fibre Channel storage with 2 GB of cache is priced at $3.2 million. AVFlex Mixed AV 20000 and AV 25000 blocks, and DG/UX partitions will be available in the first quarter of 1999; DG/UX and NT partitions will be available in the second quarter. Pricing for partition design services vary depending on configurations. For example, services for partitioning a 16-processor DG/UX system into a 12-processor DG/UX system and a four-processor NT system is priced from $17,000. About Data General Data General (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :DGN DGN Design (file) DGN Dirección General de Normas (Standards Organization in Mexico) DGN MicroStation Design File (file format/extension) ), based in Westboro, Massachusetts, is a major supplier of storage and enterprise computing Refers to information technology in the larger company. See enterprise data and enterprise networking. solutions for customers worldwide. Our products include CLARiiON Fibre Channel storage systems, high-end NT and UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). AViiON servers, and related software and services. The company reported fiscal 1997 revenues of $1.5 billion. Additional information on the company, its products, and services is available on the Internet at www.dg.com. AViiON, DG/UX, and CLARiiON are registered trademarks; NUMALiiNE and AVFlex are trademarks; and AV/Alert is a service mark of Data General Corporation. Intel and Pentium are registered trademarks; Xeon and IA-64 are trademarks of Intel Corporation (company) Intel Corporation - A US microelectronics manufacturer. They produced the Intel 4004, Intel 8080, Intel 8086, Intel 80186, Intel 80286, Intel 80386, Intel 486 and Pentium microprocessor families as well as many other integrated circuits and personal computer networking . All other brand and product names appearing in this press release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. |
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