Tandem Computers

History & Operations

• The company's primary claim to fame was its NonStop line of systems, which used redundant processors and storage to ensure zero downtime. At the Cupertino headquarters, the branding was ubiquitous—everything was "NonStop® this and NonStop® that."
• Headquartered in Cupertino, California, the company was a major hub of engineering talent in Silicon Valley before its acquisition by Compaq in 1997.

Projects & Contracting

• Security Administration Guide: As a technical writing contractor for about a year (circa 1987–1988), I authored Tandem's first Security Administration Guide, a crucial document required to secure Department of Defense Orange Book (C2) security evaluation for Tandem NonStop Guardian systems.
• Collaborated closely with Bill Lamb on the Safeguard security software implementation.

Lore & Anecdotes

• The "NonStop® Fajitas" at Chili's:
  • At the adjacent Vallco Fashion Mall just west of the Tandem headquarters in Cupertino, the local Chili's ran an "all-you-can-eat" fajita promotion.
  • In a playful nod to their tech-giant neighbor, Chili's branded the promotion explicitly as "NonStop® Fajitas", borrowing Tandem's exact trademarked camel-case spelling. Tandem never objected, finding the humor in their corporate identity spilling over into lunchtime dining. See NonStop Culture and Chili's NonStop Fajitas.
• The Safeguard C2 Prank:
  • On April Fools' Day in 1988, I exploited an operating system permissions bug in Safeguard to lock an un-deletable file named APRLFOOL into every user's directory. This stunt nearly got me fired but led to patching a major security loophole before Tandem systems went on to power global financial markets. See Tandem Computers and the Safeguard C2 Prank.