denise@resource.Resource.COM (Denise Yourick) (11/22/89)
Thanks to all who wrote regarding Teradata.
Several people who responded to my request for information on Teradata
Corporation (originally misnamed Terra Data by me) asked that I summarize
the responses to the net. So here it is.
The company is Teradata Corporation. They are based in Los Angeles but also
have (at least) a Cincinnati office which I am dealing with. The addresses are:
Teradata Corporation
12945 Jefferson Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90066
Phone: 213-827-8777
Or
Teradata Corporation
One Riverfront Place, Suite 890
Newport, KY 41071
Phone: 606-291-9955
They have two main product offerings - the famous Database Computer System
and an "Optical Storage Processor". The first is their mainstay product
which is a "high performance, fault-tolerant" computer system for
relational database management. They achieve exceptionally fast data
storage and retrieval by using a series of Winchester drives each with its
own dedicated 386 processor. Each drive holds a certain segment of the
database and a proprietary bus called "Y-Net" routes requests to the
appropriate processor for database access. The unit is to a certain extent
a "black box" because it comes fully programmed and is not user programmable.
A small, entry-level system would be 4 to 5 gigs of storage with 6 processors
running at 3 mips per processor. This would be in the ballpark of $500k.
The modular design reputedly allows users to just continue plugging in
additional modules as the size and processing requirements of the application
dictate. The system can be expanded to nearly 5 terabytes (!) and more than
3 BIPS (!!).
In the next calendar year, they are planning on releasing a smaller version
which will be a relational file server based on the 486 processor. Of course
this server will talk with the big box.
Teradata supports several proprietary nets in addition to TCP/IP for
communications. Interaction with the box is via SQL calls and a program
has to be resident on the host computer system which parses the call and
sends it off to the Teradata.
I don't have much info on the Optical Storage Processor - just that it was
developed in response to the folks who had all this information on their
Teradata which they didn't need resident anymore, but wanted to keep available
for archiving.
The sales people were informative and helpful. The company seems very
strong financially and has an impressive client list.
Denise
--
Denise A. Yourick Resource Systems
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