Following are brief descriptions of many of Sombers’ Tandem projects. Many of these projects entailed full responsibility for the implementation of major systems. Others involved specifying new systems, testing of systems, performance analysis and tuning, reliability analysis, and bailing out incompletely implemented systems.

Full Implementation

Amtrak – Implementation of a real-time train control system for controlling train traffic along the Northeast Corridor. This project also involved an extensive performance analysis and reliability analysis of the system.

Autotote - Implementation of a pari-mutuel totalizator system for racetracks, dog tracks, and jai-alai frontons. The system supports several hundred intelligent sell-cash ticket-issuing machines and a large variety of exotic wagering pools. Over a hundred of these systems have been installed throughout the U.S., Europe, and South America.

Autotote - Implementation of a state lottery system supporting several thousand intelligent sell-cash terminals, with full network monitoring and control.

BHC Financial – The enhancement of a corporate brokerage system to provide Internet access.

Catalogia - Implementation of an on-line retail catalog system for menu-driven catalog sales through a large nationwide chain of catalog stores.

Chemical Bank - Implementation of a major portion of a corporate cash management system developed as a product offering by a major bank and subsequently spun off as a separate venture.

Competitive Media Research - Implementation of a publication subsystem for the reporting of commercial activity on network, local, and cable TV and on network radio. The subsystem prepares typeset copy for a variety of weekly and monthly reports for advertisers, advertising agencies, and TV and radio stations.

FTC Communications - Implementation of a private network store-and-forward switch supporting multiple independent networks. A powerful message definition language (MDL) supports on-line addition of new formats, routing algorithms, and error control procedures.

FTC Communications - Implementation of a cablegram switch supporting full F.31 cablegram traffic for an international record carrier. Automatic formatting of non-F.31 traffic, with word counting, page splitting, cablegram splitting, and collation. This switch also was installed for a foreign PT&T.

Pegasus Message Corp. - Implementation of a message switch which manages traffic flow for a common carrier providing a mobile data service using meteor burst communications.

SIAC - Implementation of a major stock exchange’s overnight file processing system, which maintains the file of open, buy, and sell orders between trading sessions.

Smith Kline Clinical Labs - Design and partial implementation of a clinical laboratory data management system, which tracks specimens through the laboratory, collects results, and prepares and transmits test reports.

Video Financial Services - Implementation of a billing and customer conversion subsystem for the banking gateway to a major videotext system. This subsystem provides accounting functions and a simplified means for correspondent banks to enter customer data prior to their internal EDP conversions.

System Specification

GE Credit Corp: - Functional and design specifications for a credit authorization switch, which routes authorization requests to appropriate credit card hosts for action. Local ATMs were also supported.

GTE - Design of a facilities management system to track billions of dollars of telephone plant for a major U.S. common carrier.

Harris Satellite - Functional specification of a network fault monitoring system for a major U.S. common carrier.

Southeast Bank - Functional specification of an automatic operations system for a major home banking service. The AOS is a very sophisticated batch supervisor and media librarian designed to provide nearly automatic operation in a combined Pathway/batch environment.

Testing

Federal Express – The design and partial implementation of an automatic regression testing system for improving the QA on a large inventory control and shipping system.

SP Communications - Implementation of a test subsystem for a system supporting universal measured service (UMS) for a major common carrier.

Performance

A. C. Neilson - Performance analysis of a system which semi-automatically enters TV viewing activity from viewer diaries preparatory to providing industry reports and show ratings.

Amtrak - Performance analysis of the computer complex used for control of train traffic and electrification in Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor.

Exchange Lab - Capacity planning model for a large trading system network that related the transaction activity of the trading system to the tpc-C benchmark so that system configurations could be determined from the published tpc-C benchmarking results.

Federal Express - A performance analysis of a large packet-switching network for high volume distribution of facsimile documents via satellite links. The analysis included the network control processor as well as the packet nodes.

First National Bank of Chicago - Performance analysis of a message switch interconnecting multiple Tandem and IBM systems operated by a major midwestern bank.

Ford Aerospace - Performance enhancement of a system for assignment of FAA communication and navigation frequencies, using an algorithmic database relating frequency coverage to geography

Ford Aerospace - Performance analysis of a proposed system supporting automated flight service stations.

Harris Satellite - Performance analysis of a system for the dynamic allocation of satellite channels being marketed to third world countries.

Tandem – Performance audit of Tandem’s Guardian Performance Analyzer (GPA) and Tandem Capacity Model (TCM).

Tandem - Performance measurement of a competitor's line of processing systems and the equivalent measurements on Tandem systems for competitive analysis.

Video Financial Services - Performance analysis of an on-line credit authorization system, provided by a major financial organization supporting private label credit cards.

Reliability Analysis

Amtrak - Reliability analysis of a real time train control system and the recommendations of system design and configuration changes to meet stringent reliability specifications.

Exchange Lab - Integrity analysis of a trading system network providing a variety of trading mechanisms (book, match, auction, negotiation) and simultaneous representation of an order in multiple markets without the risk of redundant executions.

System Corrections

Johnson and Johnson - Enhancement and correction of a large general ledger and accounts payable system to eliminate bugs leading to out-of-balance conditions and to improve the control and operation of the system.

Realtron - Reworking of a nationwide on-line system for real estate listings to correct bugs causing daily crashes and to add system control features.