AT&T GIS introduces WorldMark brand of server systems

September 27, 1995 -- CHICAGO -- In its first post-restructuring
announcement, AT&T Global Information Solutions today announced the new
WorldMark brand of enterprise server systems, which offer a combination of
affordability, scalability and performance never before seen in the
computer industry.

"The WorldMark family is the technical foundation of AT&T's current and
future solutions business from this day forward," said Tom Mays, AT&T GIS
senior vice president, Computing and Communications. "WorldMark provides a
new foundation for enterprise computing that allows us to strengthen our
position as the world leader in commercial massively parallel processing
technology."

Mays said the WorldMark introduction fulfills a vision that NCR Corporation
first conceived in 1990 to allow customers to move from open symmetric
multiprocessing (SMP) to massively parallel processing (MPP) systems while
maintaining their initial SMP investments. In addition, the new WorldMark
models offer a well-defined migration path for customers from existing
AT&T System 3000 models.

"The System 3000 series we introduced five years ago allowed us to achieve
number one market share in the enterprise server market," Mays said.
"WorldMark brings us into a new era that will provide our customers with
unprecedented scalability, performance and affordability."

The WorldMark series puts data warehousing and online transaction
processing solutions well within the reach of many businesses which were
previously unable to afford them. WorldMark MPP systems have achieved a
three-to-one price/performance improvement over previous MPP systems
running the AT&T Teradata database.

Designed for enterprise-wide mission critical and decision-support
applications, the WorldMark series incorporates a common hardware building
block across high-end SMP, clustered, and MPP systems. It provides
customers with a "multi-dimensional" growth capability in hardware,
database systems, and operating systems, allowing a business to start with
a four-processor system and expand it to incorporate up to thousands of
processors.

The WorldMark brand encompasses all AT&T enterprise server systems,
including existing high-end 3400 and 3500 SMP systems and 3600 MPP
systems. Introduced today are the WorldMark Series 4100, 4500, and 5100
systems.

AT&T introduced the systems at the Gartner Group Conference on Commercial
Parallel Processing here.

The Worldmark Series 5100 can support data warehouse sizes ranging from 10
gigabytes to over 100 terabytes. With the system, customers can start with
a single processor subsystem containing four Intel Pentium
microprocessors. Using the same core subsystem and modular components,
businesses can build on their initial investment through a well-defined
vertical migration path from SMP through clustering to MPP. A horizontal
migration path allows system expansion up to thousands of microprocessors
in MPP systems. WorldMark provides for continued support for open systems
standards, including next- generation Intel Pentium Pro (P6)
microprocessors.

Gene Lee, research manager for International Data Corporation, said, "AT&T
GIS's introduction of the WorldMark servers lowers the entry point for its
data warehousing solution and opens opportunities for AT&T beyond the
Fortune 100. The use of common hardware and software in the WorldMark
enterprise servers offers investment protection across their entire range
of servers."

New WorldMark servers are offered in the following configurations, all of
which are Intel Pentium Pro-ready:

AT&T 4100S

The deskside 4100 provides rapid, economical scalability from two to eight
90 Mhz or 133 Mhz Pentium processors. The AT&T 4100 is available in SMP,
cluster-ready and high availability configurations. U.S. list price for a
fully configured AT&T 4100 SMP system is $58,000. Available immediately,
the 4100S has achieved top-ranking TPC-C benchmark results of 2,692 tpmC,
at $489 per tpmC.

AT&T 4500S

The 4500 scales from two to 16 processors 90 Mhz Pentium processors.
Completely compatible at both the hardware component and software binary
levels with AT&T's existing 3500 systems, the 4500 is available in Q4,
1995. Available in both SMP and cluster-ready versions, U.S. list price
for a fully configured AT&T 4500 SMP system is $82,000.

AT&T 5100S

The SMP-based AT&T 5100S is an exceptional platform for building
information solutions. It can be used as a departmental server, for
high-performance online transaction processing (OLTP), and for entry-level
data warehousing applications. Symmetrical multi- processing means that
multiple, tightly-coupled processors execute several instructions
simultaneously while using common memory and the same operating system.
U.S. list price for a fully configured AT&T 5100S with four 90 Mhz Pentium
processors is $235,000. It is available immediately.

AT&T 5100C

Based on system clustering, the AT&T 5100C is designed for business
critical applications which require consistent uptime and/or which demand
high performance in OLTP environments. These environments include
reservation systems, self-service banking, credit authorization, and
online access to database records. "Clustering" refers to the use of
multiple systems which are combined as a single larger system, thereby
providing both high performance and fault-resilience in a "fail-over"
mode. The U.S. list price for a fully configured AT&T 5100C with a
dual-node cluster with eight 90 Mhz Pentium processors is $465,000. It is
available immediately.

AT&T 5100M

The MPP-based AT&T 5100M is ideally suited for decision support,
enterprise-wide online complex transaction processing, data warehousing
and OLTP applications. An MPP system uses a loosely-coupled design in
which all processor subsystems have local dedicated memory and separate
copies of the operating system, all communicating through a high-speed
interconnect. The U.S. list price for a fully configured dual-node system
with eight 133 Mhz Pentium processors is $660,000, which includes the
BYNET high speed interconnect for two to 16 nodes. It is available
immediately.

The AT&T 5100C and 5100M can be used for server consolidation roles in
which multiple applications of different servers are brought together
under a single system view. Both systems offer a single operational view
of the entire system via an administration workstation subsystem.

The AT&T 5100M features the AT&T "BYNET" high-speed intelligent
interconnect technology in which data is passed on a point-to-point basis
without going through intermediate junctions. This speeds the access of
detailed information found in very large commercial databases. Complex
queries that can take hours or days to process on conventional systems can
be answered in minutes or seconds using this new technology. The
performance of the system is ensured through redundant software and
hardware features that provide high availability. In addition, the systems
are designed for easy growth through a variety of scalability features.

The AT&T 5100M supports the new open Teradata for UNIX database, Oracle
Parallel Server, Sybase MPP (formerly Navigation Server), Informix-OnLine
Extended Parallel Server (OnLine XPS), and mixed configurations of
Teradata and other databases. AT&T supports an eight-node Oracle Parallel
Server cluster with a highly efficient implementation of the Oracle
Distributed Lock Manager. The company also has a close partnership with
Informix, which developed its OnLine XPS product on the WorldMark
platform. WorldMark will support SAP's R/3 integrated business software
application suite.

UNIX MP-RAS 3.0

AT&T also announced as a WorldMark operating system UNIX SVR4 MP- RAS 3.0,
the newest version of its UNIX System V Release 4 multi- processing
operating system. MP-RAS is AT&T's mission-critical server operating
system for customers who require the highest levels of reliability,
availability, and serviceability, as well as performance and scalability.
MP-RAS 3.0 is compatible with Novell's UnixWare 1.1 operating system and
with SCO UNIX.

More than 250 independent software vendors have committed to port their
products to UNIX MP-RAS 3.0.

Microsoft Windows NT Server

Windows NT Server is a currently available operating system option on the
WorldMark 4100 series. It will be available with the 4500S in Q4 1995 and
on the 5100S beginning in the third quarter of 1996. The 5100M
availability will coincide with performance enhancements which AT&T will
introduce during the year. Windows NT Server is AT&T's primary server
operating system for LAN-based applications, and is also AT&T's primary
network operating system where application processing and network services
must run on the same platform. AT&T has expanded the reach of Microsoft
Windows NT and the Microsoft BackOffice family of products for complex
enterprise computing environments by making available extensive enterprise
computing capabilities-- including transaction services, network and
systems management, high availability clustering, application management
middleware, and network backup and restore--for the Windows NT Server
environment.

Worldwide Services

WorldMark Enterprise Servers bring enhanced value to business when combined
with AT&T GIS Worldwide Services. AT&T GIS works with customers to provide
an operational, value-delivering data warehouse as quickly as possible.
GIS Worldwide Services provides a blueprint so that successful
enhancements to customers' data warehouse environments can be made, thus
maximizing their investments in WorldMark systems.

AT&T provides comprehensive support for WorldMark systems through its
Enterprise System Support service offering, which consists of three
packaged tiers of services to address the needs of different customer
operational environments. The service takes advantage of AT&T best support
practices and worldwide experience in providing mission-critical support
for large system environments.

Enabling technologies

At an operational level, AT&T provides technologies which extend the
reliability, performance, and cost-effectiveness of WorldMark servers
across the enterprise. These include TOP END application management
middleware, which allows thousands of information requests to be handled
on a response-time sensitive basis across a corporate enterprise. AT&T
systems management offerings ensure optimum availability and performance
over time. AT&T's LifeKeeper family of fault-resilient software products
is an optional part of the 5100C. It can be used for fail-safe processing
using Oracle, Informix and Sybase databases, and can be used with Oracle
Parallel Server to enable users to have simultaneous access to databases
and shared applications.

AT&T GIS leadership

AT&T GIS's leadership in enterprise computing and data warehousing is
demonstrated by:

IDC shows AT&T GIS as the leader in worldwide, UNIX medium-scale systems
with a 13.24 percent market share and as the leader in the strategic
business systems market with a 50 percent share. According to IDC, AT&T
was the fastest-growing vendor in the medium- scale UNIX market from 1993
to 1994. IDC also reports that AT&T GIS is growing faster than the
industry average in the advanced operating environment server/host
category.

Using its expertise in parallel processing and data warehousing services,
AT&T GIS runs the single largest commercial data processing system in the
world (IDC, June 1995)

AT&T GIS has more than 12 years of experience in the design,
implementation, and management of large-scale data warehouses. AT&T's
ability to understand and accurately forecast system growth is essential
to a successful installation. (The Standish Group - August 1995)
 
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