NCR speeds the process

NCR introduced the 4300 WorldMark line of servers, one of the first symmetric multiprocessor systems to use up to eight Pentium Pros.

The 4300, which NCR says is being marketed as a midrange departmental server, uses the company's OctaScale SMP architecture to scale from one to eight processors. The system is capable of clustering three symmetric multiprocessor systems nodes under Windows NT or eight SMP nodes with UNIX.

The initial release will support up to four processors. By early 1997, the system will scale up to eight Pentium Pros. The four-way systems can be upgraded by adding a processor board to the cabinet, NCR said.

NCR supports enterprise Windows NT customers with SMP Utilization Manager middleware, which boosts the scalability and application performance of NT 4.0. LifeKeeper for Windows NT assures system and application availability.

TOP END middleware improves distributed application management and transaction monitoring. A network and systems management applications suite is also standard.

The WorldMark 4300 is available starting at $17,500 for a single-processor system and about $100,000 for a four-processor system. No price was available for an eight-processor system.