NONSTOP Crypto Query

[Harmon Seaver]

John Young wrote:
> We've been unable to retrieve more than a few words from
> the redacted portions (by use of xerography to reveal text
> below the overwrites), and would appreciate any leads on
> what NONSTOP means. Joel McNamara has been searching
> for NONSTOP info for some time:
> 

    I happen to admin a Tandem "NonStop" K-200. Not sure how truly
secure they are, but from my experience I'd say it's more security thru
obscurity than anything else, i.e., almost nobody has any knowledge or
experience with the OS, unlike unix and windoze, so info doesn't get
shared around, etc. The OS is Guardian and is extremely primitive. They
don't run C or anything else known to mankind. Well, there is know a
"unix shell" that runs on top of Guardian, with an extremely limited
command set and functionality, which does allow C code to run, but it's
not accessing low-level stuff, no hardware calls, etc. 
     Tandem was/is used mostly in banks and the like. The "nonstop" is a
bit of a joke, really -- yes, the hardware is robust, everything is
hot-swapable, but the software (at least ours) crashes a lot. You could
have a much better and more robust system with a unix cluster. 
    And of course, Tandem was a dead horse on the verge of bankruptcy
when it was bought by Compaq, about the same time Compaq bought DEC. So
now they've got Tandem "NonStop" servers which run the DEC Alpha
processors and unix. I'm sure Compaq will kill off the old Tandem line
as soon as they can, just like they are with the DEC Vaxes. Support,
yes, but no further development. 
    So the bottom line here is this -- I'd really rather doubt that the
NONSTOP referred to above has anything to do with Tandems. Certainly
they aren't running Tandem stuff on planes and vehicles -- this is heavy
iron -- and if the fedz are depending upon anything as primitive as the
Tandem OS to protect secrets, I pity them. 



-- 
Harmon Seaver, MLIS	Systems Librarian
Arrowhead Library System	Virginia, MN
(218) 741-3840	hseaver at arrowhead.lib.mn.us 
http://harmon.arrowhead.lib.mn.us