Having announced plans to tie the elements of the System X exchange together with a Fibre Distributed Data Interface high-speed optical network (CI No 1,277), GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd has revealed that it is to couple a fault-tolerant Unix computer, understood to be from Tandem Computers Inc, to System X in a bid to bring Advanced Intelligent Networks into the public domain. The company believes that the 1990s will see an explosion of advanced intelligent line related services which will create a demand for decentralised databases and processing power at the local level. It says that the flexibility and power offered by Unix will allow both public and private operators to develop and tailor their own services. The computer will run under a fault-tolerant version of Unix System V.4, although it was prototyped under System V.3. Tandem is expected to unveil its first foray into fault-tolerant Unix at the end of the year: it has developed a workstation code-named S2 that is built around a fault-tolerant configuration of three MIPS Computer Systems Inc RISC processors, using both the R2000 and R3000, with versions to use the forthcoming R4000 and R6000 in the works. Earlier this year, Tandem was reported to be negotiating a monster agreement with AT&T Co for 40,000 of the S2 workstations, wanted by the phone company for monitoring long-distance telephone lines; AT&T would pay $25,000 apiece. The Cupertinio company has invested heavily to become a major player in the telecommunications market majoring on telephone companies, and has a separate Tandem Telecommunications unit in Plano, Texas.Ahead of the launch of the MIPS RISC-based machines, Tandem is expected to unveil a new top-end machine running under its proprietary Guardian operating system that will further turn the heat on IBM in the transaction market next Monday. According to Electronic News, a configuration of the machine, code-named Cyclone and delivering three times the performance of its current top-end NonStop VLX, has been handed over to the Securities Industry Automation Corp arm of the New York Stock Exchange; others are in beta test at Electronic Data Systems Corp and at Ultimate Corp. The machines are said to be built around an improved sys tem bus and use Advanced Micro Devices logic chips.
