Conference 7.286::digital

	If we have the superior technology, then why buy it? 

	And if we WERE interested, can we afford it right now?

							mike

In note .0, I suggested that Digital has superior 'processor' technology, as
well as superior software engineering technology & practices.
This is different from Tandem's strengths, which are in the fault-tolerant
hardware & fault-tolerant operating system area.

If we were to be interested, and the deal made sense to our senior 
management, I'm sure that with Digital's credit rating, we wouldn't
have any problems getting the funds.

Still interested.

    Didn't we get out of the fault-tolerant business not too long ago??
    
    rj/31334

    Been there, done that, couldn't sell the T-shirt.  We can approach
    Tandem-style reliability with clusters at a much lower cost, and
    customers recognize this.
    
    				Steve

    We tried to sell our Fault-tolerant system business to Sequoia back in 
    1994. What Sequoia was interested in was a Alpha based system running
    OSF which Digital was near completing.  While Digital and Sequoia
    signed a letter of intent, the deal was never completed. When the deal
    fell through, the Alpha based system was canceled and Digital continued 
    to support the VAX line.

    When it looked like the deal was going through a press announcement was
    put out, from that press announcement, this was Digital's reason for
    the sale:

      "The sale of the assets of the fault-tolerant business represents 
      another step in Digital's stated strategy of focusing product 
      development resources on core platforms and products with high-volume 
      market potential."

    I don't think things in the Fault-tolerant world have changed enough to
    make Digital put over a $1B into this area.

    -Bruce

    G'day,
    
     Tandem for all its fault tolerant story, is only f/t if the
    application is programmed so!
    
    Stratus have f/t hardware and would be a closer match, since their
    system works on high redundancy and co-operating processors.
    
    
    derek

I think Tandem are having a tough time at the moment. 

They are in the the 'Transaction Processing' market, a few years back
this was supposed to be the hottest growth segment in the industry 
but it never panned out.

I read that they are thinking of abandoning their 'proprietary' architecture
and switching to an architecture based on Intel Pentiums (in a multi-processor
arrangement). 

M

    
    In the UK, the hottest thing Tandem is doing is selling re-badged SGI
    boxes. They trade on the 'Tandem' aura for reliability, but really
    Tandem is just flogging fast Unix.
    
    So, if we were to buy Tandem, we could then sell fast Unix
    boxes...er... hold on.... something not right here  ;-).
    
    The last thing we need in any of this is to buy additional 'management
    headache', which is actually what SGI have just bought when they
    gobbled Cray.
    
    
    
    AW

    Several years ago, I helped a customer convert some software from a
    Stratus system to a VMS system.  I asked the customer, "How do you like
    the fault-tolerant system?"  His response was, "It faults and we
    tolerate it."
    
    Bob

    I remember BP's response to a similar question during the last DVN.
    His view is that, "No buy-in ever looks as good as the day you buy
    it". My apologies if the quote isn't exact.
    
    Digital have wasted money in past years buying in successful companies
    with good people and then not being able to bring about the synergy
    promised.  I, for one, do not think we should try again.
    
    Calvin

That's why I love notes; such an educational environment! Thanks for all 
your enlightening responses to my query.

pellis