Force Computers Introduces Industry's First NEBS-Tested, SPARC-based CompactPCI High Availability Cluster.SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 1999-- New Embedded Cluster Platform Provides "Five Nines" Availability By Combining Redundant System Design And Off-The Shelf Cluster Software Force Computers, a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of Solectron Corporation's Technology Solutions Business Unit, (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :SLR (1) (Scalable Linear Recording) A line of magnetic tape drives from Tandberg Data that evolved from the QIC Data Cartridge format. See QIC. (2) (Single Lens Reflex) A camera that uses the same lens for viewing and shooting. ) and a leader in embedded computing, today announced its carrier-grade Centellis(TM) CO 88520 embedded cluster platform, the market's only UltraSPARC(R)-based High Availability server in a NEBS-tested CompactPCI(R) chassis. The first in Force's Centellis CO Series 88000 line, the new Centellis CO 88520 delivers "five nines" uptime for critical telco Central Office (CO) applications, Internet Service Provider Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. hosted environments and remote unattended operations. The Centellis CO 88520 provides the availability advantages of a fault-resilient CompactPCI-based chassis, tested to Telcordia NEBS Level 3 criteria and featuring Hot-Swappable components, combined with a dual-node redundant system architecture. This, according to Chris Williams, vice president of marketing for Force, gives customers several powerful paths to ensure the highest system availability and uptime. "Network equipment builders seeking to leverage the power and broad support of the SPARC/Solaris platform and the robustness of CompactPCI now have a flexible, High Availability solution, designed to minimize system downtime as well as to provide continuous service during fault recovery," said Williams. "Unlike other High Availability solutions, the Centellis CO 88520's common cluster has been tested to meet the stringent requirements of CO environments and features an open topology that allows customers a choice of cluster software." In addition to being a fully integrated High Availability cluster server, the Centellis CO 88520 provides the processing power and 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 scalability required by advanced Computer Telephony applications. The unit features all-steel chassis construction and houses dual, high-performance, 333 MHz (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. UltraSPARC IIi-based single board computers on a dual 8-slot PICMG-standard CompactPCI backplane. Support is provided for up to six Hot Swap, 3.5-inch Wide Ultra2 (LVD See LVDS. LVD - Low Voltage Differential ) SCSI SCSI in full Small Computer System Interface Once common standard for connecting peripheral devices (disks, modems, printers, etc.) to small and medium-sized computers. SCSI has given way to faster standards, such as Firewire and USB. hard disk drives and two 5.25-inch single ended SCSI devices. The Sun Solaris 7 operating environment is factory installed, ready for the installation of third-party cluster software. Redundant System Design, low MTTR (Mean Time To Repair, Mean Time To Restore) The average time it takes to repair a failed component. See reliability. MTTR - Mean Time To Recovery and Central Office-ready The Centellis CO 88520 lays the foundation for attaining "five nines" availability through its fault resilient architecture and low mean time to repair (MTTR) characteristics. High system reliability is achieved by the use of redundant system components, such as the unit's front accessed, n+1 redundant DC power converters, disk drive array, and twin cooling fan trays, all of which are Hot-Swappable to support system recovery operations through a low MTTR. The Centellis CO 88520 also supports CompactPCI Full Hot Swap for I/O boards. This allows I/O boards to be added, removed or replaced while the server is still online, thus keeping planned and unplanned system upgrades and repairs within an operation's downtime budget. Other features adding to overall system robustness include upper and lower fan trays and independent front-to-back power supply cooling. In addition, the Centellis CO 88520 chassis has been tested against NEBS Level 3 criteria, which proves that it is suited for applications that must withstand Zone 4 earthquakes (Richter 7.0 or higher), office vibration, fire containment, electromagnetic interference See EMI. , power faults, airborne contaminants and other environmental extremes. With NEBS testing already accomplished, the Centellis CO 88520 can be rapidly integrated into customer target applications. Flexible High Availability Cluster Configurations The Centellis CO 88520 is also designed for High Availability resource clustering, which increases system availability and uptime. In the event of a 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. or other system fault, the primary node will automatically fail over to the back up node, which will then pick up the primary node's operations. This type of protection makes the Centellis CO 88520 an excellent choice for a broad range of data-intensive applications, including intelligent peripheral, adjunct processor, service node, and service control point applications, as well as carrier-grade Computer Telephony applications such as interactive voice response, "follow me" services, and unified messaging systems. The High Availability functionality is provided by cluster software, which monitors the "heartbeat" of a companion node and initiates system recovery procedures in the event of node failure. The Centellis CO 88520's open cluster topology allows customers to integrate their choice of industry-standard, off-the-shelf cluster software solutions including Sun(tm) Cluster, Legato FullTime Cluster(R), and Veritas Cluster Server Veritas Cluster Server (also known as VCS) is a High-availability cluster software, for Unix, Linux and Microsoft Windows computer systems, created by Veritas Software (now part of Symantec). (tm). Depending on the cluster software, one node can be configured as an "active" primary node and the other as a "standby" back up node. It is also possible for both nodes to be active and act as back ups to each other, and even to engage in resource load-sharing in order to make maximum use of the system's processing capabilities. Pricing and Availability Volume shipments of the Centellis CO 88520 are scheduled for December of 1999. The Centellis CO 88520 is list priced at US$46,500. About Force Computers Force Computers (www.forcecomputers.com) was founded in 1981 and is a leading designer and worldwide supplier of open, scalable, high-availability system and board-level computer platforms and services for the embedded market. The processor-independent company, along with its key technology providers, helps its customers develop mission-critical applications based on SPARC (Scalable Performance ARChitecture) A family of RISC CPUs from Sun that runs mostly under Sun's Solaris, but also under Linux and BSD operating systems. After development began in the mid-1980s by David Patterson of the University of California at Berkeley and Bill (R), Pentium(R), PowerPC(TM) and 68K(TM) technologies, enabling them to gain market leadership in fast-moving segments. An ISO (1) See ISO speed. (2) (International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iso.ch) An organization that sets international standards, founded in 1946. The U.S. member body is ANSI. 9001 certified company, Force Computers practices Total Quality Management principles in all phases of the company's global operations. The company, along with its parent company, Solectron Corporation, is the 1997 winner of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is given by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology. Through the actions of the National Productivity Advisory Committee chaired by Jack Grayson, it was established by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality for Manufacturing. Force's corporate headquarters is located in San Jose, California San Jose (IPA: /ˌsænhoʊˈzeɪ/) is the third-largest city in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States. It is the county seat of Santa Clara County. . Force's European and Asia Pacific headquarters is located in Munich, Germany, and the company's Japanese headquarters is located in Tokyo, Japan. Note to Editors: All brands are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. |
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