29 Sep
2019
29 Sep
'19
9:46 p.m.
Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep
finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8
There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy.
-j
29 Sep
29 Sep
11:02 p.m.
Not obscure at all, at least not to me. I worked for Jim Gray circa 1996 -
1999 and he worked for Tandem during the NonStop era which informed his
knowledge of fault-tolerance that helped him advise the Windows NT
Clustering team.
Don't toss it!!! If you can't find
On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 9:46 PM Jason T via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but
exotic systems keep
finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8
There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy.
-j
11:40 p.m.
Their UK office was on the lower floor of a building I used to visit in
High Wycombe circa 1980
Rod
On 30/09/2019 07:02, Joseph S. Barrera III via cctalk wrote:
Not obscure at all, at least not to me. I worked for
Jim Gray circa 1996 -
1999 and he worked for Tandem during the NonStop era which informed his
knowledge of fault-tolerance that helped him advise the Windows NT
Clustering team.
Don't toss it!!! If you can't find
On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 9:46 PM Jason T via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
> Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep
> finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
> with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:
>
> https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8
>
> There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
> it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy.
>
> -j
>
--
7 Oct
7 Oct
9:25 a.m.
I worked at Canyon Park Data Center (one of Microsoft's original Data
Centers in Puget Sound) and they had just as you walked into the data
center floor a Unisys rack that had like 64 individual SBC to work in
unison with WinNT Clustering. It was configured like a Cray where you had
a maintenance pc/laptop that was the console for booting/operating the
entire rack - so yes, make sure you have all the parts together when one of
those hits the recycler.
On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 11:03 PM Joseph S. Barrera III via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Not obscure at all, at least not to me. I worked for
Jim Gray circa 1996 -
1999 and he worked for Tandem during the NonStop era which informed his
knowledge of fault-tolerance that helped him advise the Windows NT
Clustering team.
Don't toss it!!! If you can't find
On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 9:46 PM Jason T via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Well I said no more computers I can't lift,
but exotic systems keep
finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8
There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy.
-j
30 Sep
30 Sep
8:57 a.m.
On 09/29/2019 11:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk wrote:
Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but
exotic systems keep
finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8
There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy.
-j
Tandem was hot stuff back in the 1980's. These appear to be
the last gasp of their technology.
Once you had fast networking between processors, the whole
Tandem concept became pretty easy to do on a few ordinary
processors, without special hardware. So, their whole
reason for being became moot.
Jon
9:27 a.m.
On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 10:57:25AM -0500, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
On 09/29/2019 11:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk wrote:
I remember hearing that the credit/debit card database we were talking
to was a Royal Bank Tandem in Toronto when I was first involved
with Point of Sale protocols.
Well I said no more computers I can't lift,
but exotic systems keep
finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8
There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy.
-j
Tandem was hot stuff back in the 1980's. These appear to be
the last gasp of their technology. Once you had fast networking between processors, the
whole
Tandem concept became pretty easy to do on a few ordinary
processors, without special hardware. So, their whole
reason for being became moot.
Indeed.
Jon
Diane
--
- db at FreeBSD.org db at db.net http://www.db.net/~db
9:39 a.m.
On 2019-09-30 1:27 p.m., Diane Bruce via cctalk wrote:
Yes I suspect anything that HP may flog as nonstop these days would be a
high availability cluster which would probably include shared storage.?
SAN has made shared storage trivial and even allows you to spread the
nodes in the cluster geographically. When I first encountered HA cluster
the shared storage was parallel SCSI with an initiator in each system.?
The first that aloowed you to spread the nodes enough to have them in
different building used IBM's SSA, a predecessor of SAN, to connect the
storage.
Paul.
On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 10:57:25AM -0500, Jon Elson
via cctalk wrote:
All of the Canadian banks used Tandem systems to front end the Interact
it was part of the initial plan for that system.
Paul.
On 09/29/2019 11:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk
wrote:
I remember hearing that the credit/debit card
database we were talking
to was a Royal Bank Tandem in Toronto when I was first involved
with Point of Sale protocols. Well I said no more computers I can't lift,
but exotic systems keep
finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8
There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy.
-j
Tandem was hot stuff back in the 1980's. These appear to be
the last gasp of their technology. Once you had fast networking between processors,
the whole
Tandem concept became pretty easy to do on a few ordinary
processors, without special hardware. So, their whole
reason for being became moot.
Indeed. Jon
Diane 
1:07 p.m.
On 9/30/2019 9:39 AM, Paul Berger via cctalk wrote:
Paul.
On 2019-09-30 1:27 p.m., Diane Bruce via cctalk wrote:
Yes I suspect anything that HP may flog as nonstop these days would be
a high availability cluster which would probably include shared
storage.? SAN has made shared storage trivial and even allows you to
spread the nodes in the cluster geographically. When I first
encountered HA cluster the shared storage was parallel SCSI with an
initiator in each system.? The first that aloowed you to spread the
nodes enough to have them in different building used IBM's SSA, a
predecessor of SAN, to connect the storage.
In the early 2000s, I visited the HP site which had the developers for
the Tandem product, VMS HP/UX.? They were using our ICE for development
of the Itanium versions of VMS and for HP/UX.? I don't think there was
any plan to support the Nonstop in such a fashion, but the developers
were all there @ the same Cupertino site.
As to developing something to do a useful version of TAL and Nonstop w/o
any specialized hardware, I don't think so.? We had a system which was
used for a port of the Ultimate / Pick system to Tandem, which was
eventually shutdown and abandoned, but going the other way, to run TAL
in any useful manner without the checkpointing would be pretty much useless.
And Stratus is still there with financial industry using it heavily.
The Tandem method used a checkpointing comparison method which had to
use TAL as the basic platform.? Periodically comparisons would be
performed, but there was more than a little computing between comparison
checkpoints.? And the voting out of a failed unit was done by hardware.
Stratus used a bus version. so they could have hardware pulled and their
loss was in a few microseconds.? For the realtime trader guys Stratus
always won over Tandem.? but where there was no need, either platform
was excellent as pointed out for recovering and continuing after a failure.
Also, I don't know if Tandem had it, but Stratus had serial connections
and gizmos which would allow Session protection on a terminal.? you
could cut one or the other connection from your computer (required 2)
and not miss a beat on a terminal.? If the terminal went black though
there were not as many options.
thanks
Jim
On Mon, Sep 30, 2019 at 10:57:25AM -0500, Jon
Elson via cctalk wrote:
All of the Canadian banks used Tandem systems to front end the
Interact it was part of the initial plan for that system.
Paul.
On 09/29/2019 11:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk
wrote:
I remember hearing that the credit/debit card
database we were talking
to was a Royal Bank Tandem in Toronto when I was first involved
with Point of Sale protocols. Well I said no more computers I can't lift,
but exotic systems keep
finding me.? So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8
There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
it".? I've had those before.? Do I have another?? It sure is heavy.
-j
Tandem was hot stuff back in the 1980's.? These appear to be
the last gasp of their technology. Once you had fast networking between processors,
the whole
Tandem concept became pretty easy to do on a few ordinary
processors, without special hardware.? So, their whole
reason for being became moot.
Indeed. Jon
Diane 
9:44 a.m.
On 9/30/19 8:57 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
On 09/29/2019 11:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk wrote:
Jimmy Treybig was a master marketeer. I recall that when his offerings
debuted, he equip a guest with a pair of diagonal cutters and instruct
them to pick a wire, any wire and cut it.
The system would just keep running.
The old OnSale auction site that featured some really good deals back in
the 1990s was powered by Tandem.
https://web.archive.org/web/19980212000633/http://www.onsale.com:80/
--Chuck
Well I said no more computers I can't lift,
but exotic systems keep
finding me.? So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8
There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
it".? I've had those before.? Do I have another?? It sure is heavy.
-j
Tandem was hot stuff back in the 1980's.? These appear to be the last
gasp of their technology.
Once you had fast networking between processors, the whole Tandem
concept became pretty easy to do on a few ordinary processors, without
special hardware.? So, their whole reason for being became moot. 
10:44 a.m.
SII ( system integrators inc, not System Industries Inc) produced a big system for
Newspaper editing. Could be over 3000 seats. It used Coyote terminals. IIRC, i think it
ran the Guardian operating system.
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 30, 2019, at 09:45, Chuck Guzis via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 9/30/19 8:57 AM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
Jimmy Treybig was a master marketeer. I recall that when his offerings
debuted, he equip a guest with a pair of diagonal cutters and instruct
them to pick a wire, any wire and cut it.
The system would just keep running.
The old OnSale auction site that featured some really good deals back in
the 1990s was powered by Tandem.
https://web.archive.org/web/19980212000633/http://www.onsale.com:80/
--Chuck
On 09/29/2019 11:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk
wrote:
Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep
finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8
There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy.
-j
Tandem was hot stuff back in the 1980's. These appear to be the last
gasp of their technology.
Once you had fast networking between processors, the whole Tandem
concept became pretty easy to do on a few ordinary processors, without
special hardware. So, their whole reason for being became moot.
11:24 a.m.
On 9/30/19 10:44 AM, Wayne S wrote:
SII ( system integrators inc, not System Industries
Inc) produced a big system for Newspaper editing. Could be over 3000 seats. It used Coyote
terminals. IIRC, i think it ran the Guardian operating system.
At the time, I wondered if the name had been swiped from "The Forbin
Project" film.
--Chuck
9:22 a.m.
s?n 2019-09-29 klockan 23:46 -0500 skrev Jason T via cctalk:
Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but
exotic systems keep
finding me. So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8
There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy.
-j
Where in the world ?
did you have the passwords and so on so you didn't need to crack it
(which i hope is NOT easy.)
9:25 a.m.
On 9/29/19 10:46 PM, Jason T via cctalk wrote:
There's such as thing as "so obscure that no
one knows/cares about it".
I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy.
I think HP(E) acquired (what as left of) Tandem. I think that HP(E)
still sells and supports NonStop equipment today.
I'm guessing that NonStop is about as common as IBM mainframes. Maybe
slightly less so.
Common? No.
So obscure that no one knows / cars about it? Nope.
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
3 Oct
3 Oct
10:38 a.m.
Jason,
On Sun, Sep 29, 2019 at 11:46:03PM -0500, Jason T via cctalk wrote:
There's such as thing as "so obscure that no
one knows/cares about
it". I've had those before. Do I have another? It sure is heavy.
I've been curious about Tandem systems for years. I had the opportunity to
use a Tandem system briefly a couple of decades ago as an end user in
freight bill entry and driver check in. I remember very little about the
system, other than the exit key from most, if not all, screens was
<shift>F16.
--
Kevin
http://www.RawFedDogs.net
http://www.Lassie.xyz
http://www.WacoAgilityGroup.org
Bruceville, TX
What's the definition of a legacy system? One that works!
Errare humanum est, ignoscere caninum.
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13 comments
13 participants
participants (13)
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cclist＠sydex.com -
cctalk＠gtaylor.tnetconsulting.net -
db＠db.net -
don＠00100100.net -
elson＠pico-systems.com -
joe＠barrera.org -
jwsmail＠jwsss.com -
Kevin＠RawFedDogs.net -
phb.hfx＠gmail.com -
rodsmallwood52＠btinternet.com -
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stefan.skoglund＠agj.net -
wayne.sudol＠hotmail.com