AST Research demonstrates symmetric multiprocessor

Electronic News, March 16, 1992 by Gerry Khermouch

NEW YORK -- AST Research, a maker of PC compatibles that has set its sights for some time on the mid-range systems market, last week demonstrated a symmetric multiprocessing machine that should be ready for market by summer.

The machine, demonstrated running Santa Cruz Operation's Unix 3.2v4 at both the Downsizing Expo in Chicago and the CeBit '92 show in Hannover, Germany, initially will accommodate up to four 50MHz 486 microprocessors, but in the future will be able to support both a larger number of Intel MPUs and even a wholesale shift to a RISC platform if Intel processors start to lag in the performance race.

The machine will be sold both as an open-systems alternative to proprietary mid-range systems, such as those sold by IBM and Digital Equipment Corp., and as a high-availability LAN server competing against the flock of so-called "superservers" that have then coming to market.

While company officials described the current configurations only as technology demonstrators, product manager Melody Wolfgram indicated the line would start under $25,000 for a uniprocessor machine with 16MB of system memory, 1GB of SCSI storage and adapter card.

The system illustrates the high ambitions of some PC makers to move up the value chain as margins continue to contract in their basic desktop business, although AST executives acknowledged that successfully marketing the units will require major shifts in their distribution channels.

In a telephone interview from the Chicago show floor, AST officials sought to distance their company from the numerous other PC makers who have aspired to higher-value markets by arguing that they had stayed out of the market until they were ready to show a system offering truly symmetric multiprocessing and able to run off-the-shelf Unix operating systems.

"Our feeling is that a lot of multiprocessors out there are attempting to come up from the low end," said product manager Larry Vertal. "We consider a lot of them to be first-generation in that they're either asymmetrical or quasi-symmetrial," since in almost all cases one of the processors is responsible for handling all interrupts. In commercial environments that are characterized by high I/O rates and therefore high interrupt rates, he argued, that can cause actual performance to degrade far below stated benchmark figures.

By contrast, Mr. Vertal said, "We believe ours is a second-generation, truly symmetric machine, since any CPU can handle any interrupts."

The multiprocessor was developed by a design team headed by senior engineer Shmuel Shottan and staffed by numerous engineers from MAI/Basic Four, a once high-flying manufacturer based near AST's Irvine, Calif., headquarters that last year stopped manufacturing midrange systems and evolved essentially into a VAR (EN, Feb. 25, 1991). Mr. Vertal, himself an MAI veteran, said the expertise of the mid-range specialists from MAI meshed nicely with the MPU expertise of AST's existing engineering staff.

Mr. Vertal said initial "baseline" systems will incorporate up to four 486/50 MPUs, each of them with 256K cache, and up to 256MB of total system memory. It will have a bus architecture that initially supports a 64-bitwide system bus with memory and CPU cards on a non-multiplexed bus so that a full data path of 64 bits is obtained. The passive-backplane implementation will allow AST to at least double the bandwidth in the future, Mr. Vertal indicated. The system uses a 32-bit EISA I/O bus to accommodate EISA peripherals.

AST officials made it clear that the installed base of IBM mid-range systems, including 4381, System/3X and AS/400 units, would be targeted for sales. In addition to running such standard Unix and LAN operating systems such as SCO's MPX, Banyan's Vines and Novell's Netware, they said it will be possible to port software from proprietary mid-range systems.

The machine will come standard with a disk array subsystem based on SCSI drives allowing flexibility in the choice of disks used. The system's main chassis and optional expansion cabinet each house up to 16 3.5-inch drives, for over 30GB of redundant storage.

Such standard features as error correction code memory on each of the main memory cards, together with such options as redundant power supplies, should enable the machine to compete as a LAN server, Mr. Vertal said.

While Mr. Vertal insisted AST remains committed to the Intel architecture, he noted that "We have also looked toward the future, and didn't design an architeture that is completely Intelcentric. It can integrate RISC-based processors as well."

The AST officials acknowledged that they were approaching this market later than several competitors, but argued that the lackluster results of several of these other efforts show that the market is only now ready for the systems.

"We didn't jump into this game earlier because we felt off-the-shelf (Unix) operating systems were just coming on stream that could take full advantage of multiprocessing," Mr. Vertal said. He pointed to such efforts as SCO's MPX and Unix System Laboratories' MP release of V.4, as well as the NT program at Microsoft, which is to include a symmetric core.