INDUSTRY

ARMONK, NY -- The IBM eServer p690 server today set a new transaction processing record for Oracle9i Database on the crucial TPC-C benchmark, providing better performance and price/performance than the Hewlett-Packard 9000 enterprise server ("Superdome") while using only half the number of processors. Sun Microsystems has not published a TPC-C benchmark result for its comparable system, the Sun Fire 15K. In the TPC-C benchmark, a 32-way IBM eServer p690 processed 403,255 transactions per minute (tpmC), compared with 389,434 posted by a 64-way HP Superdome. The IBM eServer p690 is also more affordable than the HP Superdome, achieving a price/performance score of $19.57 per transaction ($/tpmC), compared with $21.24 $/tpmC for the HP system. The IBM eServer p690 tested ran AIX5L, IBM's award-winning UNIX operating system, and Oracle9i Database Release 2 Enterprise Edition. "These impressive results demonstrate in crystal clear terms that the IBM eServer p690 is the world's leading UNIX server for Oracle(R) database transactions," said Val Rahmani, general manager of IBM eServer pSeries. "Customers can rely on the p690 for the broad spectrum of their business computing needs." The IBM eServer p690 is fueled by the IBM POWER4 microprocessor, which is faster than any competitor's 64-bit chip. Widely acknowledged to be at least one generation ahead of competing chips, POWER4 is the first "server on a chip," containing two one-gigahertz-plus processors, a high-bandwidth system switch, a large memory cache and I/O interface. Compared to competing UNIX servers, the IBM eServer p690 delivers more performance for the same number of processors while delivering world-class reliability features and saving electricity, maintenance, operating and system administrator costs. Fewer processors also translates into lower cost of ownership, since many key software applications priced according to total number of processors are significantly less expensive to run on the IBM eServer p690 than on competing systems that need more processors to achieve similar performance. Commercial customers rely on the TPC-C test as a principle metric for comparing systems that run demanding single database enterprise-wide applications.