Tandem and Clementine to Scale up Data Mining Technology
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Tandem and ISL, the U.K. affiliate of ISL Decision Systems, have announced that they are working together on providing a scalable data mining solution, based on the Clementine Data Mining System. CHESS -- the Clementine High Efficiency Scalable Server -- will be a new product, intended to make it more practical for businesses to use their data warehouses for data mining. Initial experiments show typical speed gains of at least 10 to 100 times.

ISL is inviting vendors of databases, warehouses and parallel computer platforms to help develop customized versions of CHESS. Tandem is the first vendor to confirm their involvement, and other big names are expected to follow suit in the near future.

The CHESS server is a middleware component which is positioned as close as possible to the host database/data warehouse. CHESS will take advantage of software and hardware support already in place for large scale data warehouses.

"Clementine is unusual in already having a truly scalable architecture. This gives us a tremendous head start in developing the first true enterprise-wide data mining solution," said Abhay Mehta, Data Mining Director at Tandem.

"Data mining is the most powerful way to get value from data warehouses," said Alan Montgomery, head of ISL. "In Tandem, we have a partner who is perfectly placed to work with us in taking Clementine to the next level."

The generic version of CHESS is scheduled for full release in early 1999. The customized Tandem version will be released in the second quarter.

Tandem, a division of Compaq, provides software, hardware, solutions, and services to support business-critical electronic commerce, decision support, and high-volume transaction processing for businesses in the telecommunications and finance industries.

ISL Decision Systems Inc. is a leading data mining software company. Data mining enables users to search databases in ways that were previously impossible to discover hidden relationships, patterns and valuable information. The company's award-winning Clementine product was the first enterprise-strength data mining system to be aimed at business users.

Clementine is a leading interactive data mining system, and ISL has led the way in discovering new applications for data mining including fraud prevention, pharmaceutical research, consumer buying patterns, financial risk assessment, point-of-sale data analysis and customer profiling and production process analysis. Based in King of Prussia, PA, ISL Decision Systems Inc. is part of the ISL Group which also has affiliates in the U.K. and Singapore and a network of distributors serving countries around the world. More information is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.isldsi.com