CMP allows Unisys to merge Unix and NT

Unisys will ship a 'partitionable' 32-processor NT server early next year, using a system design called Cellular Multiprocessing (CMP).

According to Unisys, an important use of the CMP architecture will be to allow multiple servers to be consolidated into one box. For instance, a Unix database server and an NT application server can be combined in one box.

Based on Intel processors, the machine can be software configured to function as a cluster of symmetric multiprocessing servers or simply as a single 32-processor machine.

Unisys claims its CMP design combines the advantages of clustering and SMP. Processors can be added to boost performance. High availability can be guaranteed by enabling applications to fail over to another server.

CMP will support four to 32 Intel processors in one system, up to 32GB of shared memory and up to 96 PCI slots. The processors can be combined into one SMP system or partitioned in up to eight separate servers. The separate servers can run different operating systems simultaneously and the partitions can be changed by the systems administrator.

To speed up communication between CPUs, CMP uses a 'crossbar', a type of switch, instead of a shared bus. This allows multiple point-to-point transfers to take place at the same time.