Today’s computer platforms have become essential components in almost all businesses and industrial processes. Heavy dependence on their operation has created additional consequences; in particular loss of business and customer trust that can arise as a result of system faults. To match this growing dependence on system platforms, Fujitsu has been actively innovating its enterprise computer product lines for over 50 years, resulting in today's highly reliable mission critical systems. This article introduces Fujitsu’s enterprise computer heritage and shows the developments that led to the rich variety of successful technologies which ensure top line reliability and performance in today's business environments.

Over 50 years of high reliability and performance

In the infancy of computer history, Fujitsu was already crafting reliability functions – its first heritage value. It started in 1954 with the launch of the first Fujitsu computer, FACOM 100. This was the first relay-based computer developed in Japan. Calculations were performed using relay devices consisting of electromagnets and electric switches. These processed the 0’s and 1’s of binary code by transforming electrical signals into mechanical actions.
While the FACOM 100 was certainly innovative, mechanical fatigue and dust made it prone to failure and malfunction. To recover from such failures, Fujitsu invented a system of automatic logic checks in calculation results. This allowed recalculation following any failure. These technological improvements resulted in the FACOM 128A/B (successors of the FACOM 100) becoming acceptable to many companies and universities. A FACOM 128B can still be seen at Fujitsu’s Numazu Factory.

The FACOM 230 series followed the move to higher reliability pioneered by the use of transistor circuits in the FACOM 222. This allowed Fujitsu to offer a variety of computer classes from the very small to the very large. This success would not have been possible without Fujitsu’s transistor technology and allowed the commercial computers developed by Fujitsu to be referred to as “mainframes” – a computer category with the highest performance and richest resources.

The development innovations of high density technology and CPU load balancing enabled Fujitsu to create a dual CPU computer, the FACOM 230-60. These technologies were also the origin of Fujitsu’s server scalability. In FACOM 230-75, reliability and performance were further improved by a flood of innovations – ECC memory protection code, data bus protection by parity checking and performance improvements using memory buffering. These technologies further added to Fujitsu’s heritage.

In the M series, Fujitsu continued its reliability development with memory patrol, chip switching and manageability improvements using a service processor. In Addition, the use of triple-layered memory and Harvard architecture allowed Fujitsu to continue to improve overall performance.

By the latest mainframe age, developments in semiconductor accumulation, integrated branch prediction and out-of-order logic further enhanced performance with the GS series. High reliability continued to be further improved by extensive use of hot-replacement technologies.

Based on Fujitsu’s 50+ year heritage, GR700 series was developed as a key component in Fujitsu's information architecture solutions for companies with large, heterogeneous storage environments. Fujitsu's GR Series offered integrated data replication facilities through point-in-time replication (One Point Copy) and mirroring (Equivalent Copy) with the ability to suspend and resume, ensuring continuous access to data for business critical operation.

All today’s Fujitsu servers and storage systems borrow from and enhance that technology heritage, enabling them to continue to appeal to an ever wider variety of organizations.

Why Fujitsu servers and storage are chosen

Throughout Fujitsu’s computer development history, high reliability and performance have been top of the development priorities. Naturally in the early days of computer development, technical limitations and the large volume of parts required, meant system reliability was much lower than today. But even in such environments, Fujitsu used its best efforts to continually enhance reliability and performance.

This continuous innovation and commitment has bequeathed on Fujitsu technological values and expertise that few venders enjoy. Fujitsu knows that behind every innovation are the step-by-step processes, personal enthusiasm and new technology evaluation expertise, which enable the resulting integration into each enterprise product. Each iteration also further extends and deepens its technology expertise over the long haul.

High reliability and performance in every Fujitsu enterprise product line

Fujitsu continues to deliver high reliability and performance in enterprise computer products based on advanced technology and expertise garnered from over 50 years of mainframe development.

Industry Standard PRIMERGY servers provide reliable, flexible, and cost effective IT infrastructure that ensures greater competitiveness in modern e-business environments. They offer a stable system environment at all times, prevent business opportunity losses due to unplanned system halts, handle higher loads, and reduce administrative overheads, leading to huge reductions in costs.

Mission Critical IA Server PRIMEQUEST provides high-end server functionality using industry standard components supported by superior Fujitsu technology. Long cultivated and refined over generations of computer system development, it embodies the best characteristics of mainframe and UNIX servers: reliability, supercomputer high-performance, and the cost and flexibility benefits of open systems.

SPARC Enterprise is the new SPARC/Solaris standard, combining the best technologies from both Fujitsu and Sun Microsystems. Mid- to High- end models incorporate optimal performance, reliability and virtualization for world’s best practice application processing. Entry-models provide high throughput, energy-saving and space-saving solutions for Web-front server deployment.

Designed to protect your data and flexibly support business, Fujitsu’s enterprise storage solutions cover the full spectrum of storage needs from entry systems to the world’s largest storage arrays. Built for companies requiring maximum reliability and availability, the SAN storage systems are also complemented by a full range of advanced storage management functions.