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AT&T Global Information Solution (AT&T GIS), the former NCR computer business, has launched its WorldMark enterprise server systems in Asia.

  The roll out of the servers is the first strategic public act by the unit since its parent, AT&T, announced a halt to its PC manufacturing business a month ago and wrote off US$1.2 billion in associated expenses.

  The Asian launch started with Hong Kong yesterday and will be extended to Taiwan and Korea next year.

  The new products are the WorldMark Series 4100, 4500 and 5100 system in configurations of symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), clustered, and massively parallel processing (MPP) systems.

   According to the company, the WorldMark brand now covers all AT&T enterprise server systems, including existing high-end 3400 and 3500 SMP and 3600 MPP systems.

  'The WorldMark family is the technical foundation of AT&T GIS's current and future business solutions from this day forward,' Victor Ang, AT&T GIS managing director for Asia and China, said.

  He said the new servers would allow the group to strengthen its position as world leader in commercial massively parallel processing technology.

  In 1990, NCR embarked on a strategy of letting customers move from open SMP to MPP systems without sacrificing their initial SMP investments.

  According to AT&T, the new models offer a migration path in keeping with that strategy, letting customers move up from AT&T System 3000 models.

 'WorldMark brings us into a new era that will provide our customers with unprecedented scalability, performance and affordability,' Mr Ang said.'   James Alderton, regional director of computer systems, said its enterprise strategy was centred on helping customers build business-critical computing and enterprise information factory solutions.

   'The WorldMark series puts data warehousing and on-line 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,' Mr Alderton said.

  For enterprise-wide, mission-critical and decision-support applications, the AT&T series incorporates a common hardware building block across high-end SMP, clustered and MPP systems.

  Customers will have a 'multi-dimensional' growth capability in hardware, database systems and operating systems.

   For example, the WorldMark Series 5100 can support data warehouses ranging from 10 gigabytes to more than 100 terabytes.

  With the 5100 system, customers can start with a single processor sub-system containing four Intel Pentium microprocessors.

   Using the same core sub-system and modular components, companies can move up 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 being upgrade-ready to Intel's next generation of processors, Pentium Pro,' Mr Alderton said.

  Gene Lee, research manager for IDC, said the introduction of the products 'lowers the entry point for its data warehousing solution and opens opportunities for AT & T beyond the Fortune 100.'   The new servers are available in the following configurations, all Pentium Pro-ready: 4100s, 4100C, 4500S, 5100S, 5100C, and 5100M.

   Starting with either two 90-MHz or 133-MHz Intel Pentium processors, WorldMark servers can be configured as SMP, clustered or MPP systems.

  US list prices range from US$58,000 for a fully-configured WorldMark 4100 SMP system to $660,000 for a fully-configured WorldMark 5100M MPP system.

  AT&T GIS's parent, AT&T, last week announced earnings of US$1.43 billion before a net charge of US$1.2 billion for restructuring the former NCR unit.

  The company said the charge would cover the loss of 7,200 jobs and 1,300 contractors.

  There could also be additional charges in future, the company warned.



AT&T GIS launches WorldMark server systems in Asia