Sequent Computer Systems Inc intends to revamp its full line of Unix and Windows NT Intel Corp 80486 and Pentium-based symmetric multiprocessors by the middle of the year. The launch was originally planned for April, although the effects of reorganisation may push it back until June. After a bruising fourth quarter, which saw profits wiped out by restructuring charges, and with all the noise being generated by rivals like ICL Plc, Pyramid Technology Corp, Unisys Corp and AT&T Co, about massively parallel commercial architectures, Sequent will use the overhaul as a means to re-assert its belief that its current architecture offerings, servers ranging from one to 30 CPUs, plus a range of fibre optic clustering options, is quite enough to serve any customer’s need at the moment. Although it could be a smokescreen for its own efforts in that area, the company argues that commercial-quality massively parallel processing is a misnomer right now because it is not a today technology. Such talk is hardly a surprise, given the millions of dollars and years of development the Beaverton, Oregon firm has put into developing its symmetric multiprocessing techniques. Indeed it argues that competing firms have only recently begun to achieve the same degree of symmetric multiprocessing functionality that it has had for some time. Sequent cites its symmetric multiprocessing Unix operating system implementation, Dynix/OS as an example. Other firms, it contends, designed their original Unix system software for use on uniprocessor boxes and have had to add fixtures and fittings for symmetric multiprocessing, whereas Sequent began with multiprocessors in mind. Although its pedigree may give it a leg-up, the irony is that having spent years developing symmetric multiprocessing features for Unix as a key partner in Unix Systems Group’s Unix System V.4 ES/MP project, Unix Group owner Novell Inc’s plan for the evolution of Unix doesn’t seem to square with what Sequent wants from its supplier. Sequent reckons that it has between a year and 18 months of room to develop its current Unix Systems Group-derived code before it will need to purchase a further high-end Unix implementation enhanced for commercial symmetric multiprocessing. Nothing currently indicates that Novell will be able to meet that requirement – indeed locating a source for future high-end Unix operating system implementations is a quandary other large-scale Unix system vendors are facing as well. Ideally, Sequent would like to partner a firm or group of companies that have aggressive plans to productise commercial Unix requirements, says its enterprise and marketing vice-president, Mark Miller.
Peddling
It is perhaps not surprising that following the company’s exposure to Microsoft Corp, Miller feels that a Unix vendor or group needs to do the same for Unix as Microsoft has done for NT. It has to lay out a set of plans, he says, which show clearly that this is where we are going, this is what we will do to get there and these are the application programming interfaces we will use. Novell’s apparent focus on the low-end of the market and the NetWaring of Unix doesn’t excite Sequent, while SunSoft Inc, which is determinedly peddling its own Solaris Unix, suffers, Sequent believes, from a lack of trust in the market due to its parentage. Now divided into system and enterprise marketing units, Sequent is turning itself into an enterprise system provider, says Miller, citing Sequent’s 70% research and development spend on software and middleware. The system unit provides the basic hardware and software to OEM customers, value-added resellers and to its own enterprise marketing division. That unit, which includes the entire sales force and is responsible for administering and establishing partnerships, oversees the addition of whatever technology is required for specific systems.
