Dear Bernardo,

Joel Bartlett is one of the Tandem founders; he is also responsible for the software architecture (process pairs, etc.) in the original NonStop system. I met Joel when I worked at Tandem between 1981-1984.  When I passed along your email, he replied:

There's a crowd-sourced history called "Tandem Computers Unplugged - A People's History" that Gaye I. Clemson wrote. It has errors (including my employee number), but people seem to find it an entertaining read. It's available from fastpencil.com. An interesting element of oral history was interviews done with the original crew that were spliced together for the 10th anniversary. We may or may not have a copy.

As to technical history, reading the initial publications by Katzman and myself is the earliest public info. I had more information, but it was scooped up by Tandem legal when I left.

If someone wants to do an oral history, they better get started soon as at 64, I'm the youngest of the original crew.

You can order the book Joel mentioned via Amazon or from the author's web site:

http://www.tandemcomputersunplugged.com/

The initial technical publications Joel referred to were presented at the Eleventh Hawaii International Computer Conference on System Scienceds in January 1978, but have been reprinted, for example in Siewiorek and Swarz: The Theory and Practice of Reliable System Design (Digital Press, 1982).


Paul McJones



On 5/17/2013 11:51 PM, Bernardo Batiz-Lazo wrote: