“Unisys plans to introduce the first servers based
around its ‘CMP,’ or cellular multiprocessing, architecture at the
end of October or early November…
The CMP architecture will be the foundation for
creating some of the largest Intel-based servers to date. Up to
32 processors can be used at once in a CMP server, or eight
times as many processors as most top-end Intel servers on the
market now. To top that, CMP can run different operating
systems, such as Windows NT and Linux, at once.”
“Intel-based servers typically top out at four processors,
making the Unisys product a unique and powerful offering for
companies looking for powerful performance from Windows NT or
running Windows with other operating systems on the same server…
“
“Sun Microsystems is one of several manufacturers offering large
multiprocessor servers, but they don’t support mixed operating
systems. While Sun’s Enterprise 10000 server, for example, scales
to 64 processors, it runs only Sun’s Solaris flavor of Unix on
non-Intel chips. In the Intel space, Data General and Sequent
Computer, …just acquired by IBM, offer large Intel-based servers,
but they use a different technology, called NUMA (non-uniform
memory access), to tie it together. Analyst are divided over which
of the various technologies, if any, will emerge as the basis for
future servers.”