Data General introduces 6-way AViiON enterprise server and aggressively priced departmental server.WESTBORO, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 28, 1997-- Expands unique Cluster-in-a-Box product family Data General Corporation today strengthened its position as a leader in the enterprise computing Refers to information technology in the larger company. See enterprise data and enterprise networking. marketplace with the introduction of a powerful new high-end server, the AViiON AV 6600, and a new low-cost departmental server, the AV 2100. The company also announced it has extended its unique NT Cluster-in-a-Box family to include both the AV 6600 at the high end and AV 2100 systems as an entry level solution. The AV 6600 has six 200MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. Intel Pentium Pro processors, each with 512KB cache, and up to 4GB of memory in a rackmounted chassis. In addition, the systems can access up to five terabytes of fault-tolerant CLARiiON storage. "This is the first true enterprise-class server that extends beyond four Pentium Pro processors in an SMP (Symmetric MultiProcessing) A multiprocessing architecture in which multiple CPUs, residing in one cabinet, share the same memory. SMP systems provide scalability. As business increases, additional CPUs can be added to absorb the increased transaction volume. system," said Linda Mentzer, vice president, AViiON Product Marketing for Data General. "With its performance, scalability and high availability features, the AV 6600 is ideal for meeting the mission-critical computing needs of our customers." To insure high availability for business-critical applications, the AV 6600 has fully redundant power and cooling; and automated recovery from CPU CPU in full central processing unit Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. , memory, and disk or I/O channel failures. The new server also includes Data General's remote automated problem detection software which supports diagnostics and machine-initiated call-out to worldwide country service centers. The AV 2100 departmental server has one or two 200MHz Pentium Pro processors, 256 KB cache per processor and can support up to 1GB of memory. The new server supports five PCI (1) (Payment Card Industry) See PCI DSS. (2) (Peripheral Component Interconnect) The most widely used I/O bus (peripheral bus). , two ISA (1) (Instruction Set Architecture) See instruction set. (2) (Interactive Services Association) See Internet Alliance. (3) (Internet Security and Acceleration) See .NET. and one shared PCI/ISA 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, more than enough to support the expansion needs of most businesses. "With its combination of high performance and affordable pricing, the AV 2100 is a perfect fit for handling departmental, workgroup and reseller-supplied applications," added Mentzer. Customers for the new AV 6600 server will have their choice of using Microsoft Windows NT Server or Data General's DG/UX 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). implementation as their operating system. AV 2100 users will also be able to use Novell NetWare, SCO UnixWare 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. Open Server. For businesses who need to have their Windows NT Server or UNIX applications running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the new AViiON systems can be used in clustered configurations. NT Cluster-in-a-Box For NT applications, Data General offers its unique Cluster- in-a-Box solution, which now can have two AV 6600 systems with a total of twelve 200MHz Pentium Pro processors or two AV 2100 systems with four processors in a single rackmounted configuration. The servers are combined with a fault tolerant CLARiiON RAID technology storage system and the company's NT Alert automated problem detection service support and Firstwatch for NT failover software from VERITAS Software Corporation. Previously, the company's NT Cluster-in-a-Box offering has included two AViiON AV 3600 servers. The AV 3600 is a quad Pentium Pro Processor based system. "Data General was the first and is still the only computer vendor to offer an NT clustering solution that comes pre-assembled and pre-tested in a single rackmounted system that users can simply plug in and turn on," said Mentzer. UNIX Clustering Data General also can cluster up to four AV 6600 servers for UNIX applications. With the company's DG/UX Clusters software, users can administer clustered AViiON servers and CLARiiON storage systems along with AV/Alert diagnostic software as if they were a single system. Much more than simple failover, DG/UX Clusters allows AViiON systems to be interconnected across multiple sites using replication server software to provide global availability of applications and data throughout the enterprise. AViiON Roadmap The announcement of the new AViiON servers is the latest step in Data General's symmetric-multiprocessing roadmap. Later this year the company will introduce eight-way Pentium Pro based servers. The first high-end AViiON systems based on ccNUMA (cache- coherent Non-Uniform Memory Access (architecture) Non-Uniform Memory Access - (NUMA) A memory architecture, used in multiprocessors, where the access time depends on the memory location. A processor can access its own local memory faster than non-local memory (memory which is local to another processor or shared ) architecture, will be available in volume this Summer. These products will extend SMP capabilities using Data General's NUMALiiNE technology combined with the high- speed, industry-standard 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. (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. ) interconnect and sophisticated operating system techniques to create a shared memory system See shared memory. . As a result, the thousands of SMP applications available today will run on the company's ccNUMA systems without modification. Pricing and Availability The AV 6600 server with three 200MHz Pentium Pro Processors will start at under $50,000 list price. Systems with six processors will start at under $70,000 list price. The new servers are available immediately. Estimated street prices for the AV 2100 departmental server, which will be available in 30 days, will be about $4,200. Prices for an NT Cluster-in-a-Box solution including two AViiON 6600 servers, a CLARiiON disk array, Firstwatch for NT and NT Alert support will start at approximately $110,000. Cluster-in-a-Box with two AV 2100 servers will be priced at under $25,000. 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, specializes in servers, storage systems and related software and services for customers worldwide. The company reported revenues of $1.3 billion during fiscal 1996. Additional information on the company, its products, and services is available on the Internet at http://www.dg.com -0- AViiON and CLARiiON are registered trademarks, Cluster-in-a-Box is a trademark, and NT Alert is a service mark of Data General Corporation. All other brand names and product names referenced in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. CONTACT: Data General Jim Dunlap 508/898-6546 jim_dunlap@dg.com |
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