Tandem Computers (Company)

Type: company

Tandem Computers
Tandem Computers was a dominant computer manufacturer known for pioneering fault-tolerant computer systems, which were widely adopted by banks, ATM networks, stock exchanges, and telephone utilities. I worked there early in my career.
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.
- Headquartered in Cupertino, California, the company was a major hub of engineering talent in Silicon Valley before its acquisition by Compaq in 1997.
Lore & Anecdotes
- The "NonStop Fajitas":
  - A Mexican restaurant located in the Vallco Fashion Mall (just west of the Tandem headquarters in Cupertino) ran an "all-you-can-eat" fajita promotion.
  - In a playful nod to their tech-giant neighbor, the restaurant branded the promotion as "NonStop Fajitas", copying Tandem's exact trademarked camel-case spelling of NonStop.
- The Safeguard C2 Prank:
  - On April Fools' Day in 1985, 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.

These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.

Tandem Computers