Tandem Minicomputers

[Wayne S]

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:
>>> 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.
> 
> 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
> 
>