Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac,att!pacbell.com!ames!vsi1!zorch!scott
From: scott@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Scott Hazen Mueller)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: SVVS requires a panic?  Was: Re: CRASH your TANDEM :
Message-ID: <1991Mar18.174115.26445@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
Date: 18 Mar 91 17:41:15 GMT
References: <6685@auspex.auspex.com> <669239249.25261@mindcraft.com>
Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix
Lines: 40

In article <669239249.25261@mindcraft.com> karish@mindcraft.com (Chuck Karish) writes:
>In article <6685@auspex.auspex.com> guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) writes:
>>AT&T has done some bogus things in the SVVS [ ... ] , but requiring that the
>>system *panic* wasn't one of them, [...]

>It sounded sort of odd to me at the time.  Perhaps I misunderstood.

I've seen no claims (to date) that Tandem broke conformance by continuing
to run when it should panic.  I do have a quote that says "There are between
800 and 1,200 places in the UNIX operating system where it can decide to
'panic' and shut down.  Brad [Tandem s/w engineer] isolated nearly 100
junctures that, collectively, are responsible for more than 85 percent of
potential failures.  He then inserted recovery code to keep the system running.
He did this while still conforming to AT&T's standard UNIX System V."

I also have no information on SVVS compliance, though the same issue of our
internal (Tandem) magazine claims in several places that we have 100%
compliance with AT&T's UNIX System V.

>The actual capabilities of Tandem's systems also sounded wildly
>improbable to one who's used to less-robust implementations.

Heh.

I've pulled out one of the CPU's, one of the fans, and on of the disk drives
on our Integrity S2 system.  No problem.

Uptime is not spectacular, a mere 58 days; I've had Sparcservers stay up
that long.  However, we've got rotten power in my building, and even an S2
won't stay up forever without mains power.  It does ride over every minor power
glitch we've had, though, smooth as silk.

Disclaimer - I work for Tandem Computers.  This is my non-work account, and
I do not speak for the company.

-- 
Scott Hazen Mueller | scott@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG or (ames|pyramid|vsi1)!zorch!scott
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