INDUSTRY

Sun Microsystems has announced new benchmark performance results from its Sun Fire x4600 server, the industry's only 8-socket x86-based server from a tier-one server vendor. The Securities Technology Analysis Center (STAC) benchmark test measured the performance of the Sun Fire x4600 servers running Wombat Financial software on the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS). Handling the heaviest possible data load a client site could demand, the server achieved an exceptionally rapid processing speed - processing 359,000 messages per second, while reducing latency to just 511 µsec. Millions of trades per second are communicated electronically by trading communities around the world. Just one millisecond of network delay can determine whether an order is successfully filled, making a server's processing speed and reliability a critical component of a capital markets firm's competitive edge. The results of the benchmark demonstrate that the Sun Fire x4600 series is excellently equipped to help capital markets firms compete on transaction speed and reliability. The benchmark tested the capacity of the 8-socket Sun Fire x4600 server to handle the industry's heaviest market data workload through the Wombat Market Data Platform under two distribution scenarios from the Options Price Reporting Authority (OPRA). OPRA data rates are the most challenging in the industry, and the most likely to lead to server sprawl in customer data centers. During testing, the Sun Fire x4600 server running the Solaris 10 OS delivered an impressive per-server Wombat throughput of OPRA data with 359,000 updates per second. At this rate, two x4600 servers at full utilization could accommodate OPRA's total capacity upgrade in January 2008. Wombat’s software was selected for the benchmark because it is generally regarded as the fastest and widely used market data platform in the algorithmic trading market. The system tested featured Wombat Financial Software’s feed handlers and new MAMA 4 market data platform API over 29West's Latency Busters Messaging (LBM) middleware. The servers were running the latest Solaris 10 11/06 OS release and contained dual core AMD Opteron 2.8 GHZ processors. The test harness replayed recorded OPRA data at controlled rates and used standard Wombat test tools and procedures. More information on this benchmark test can be found at its Web site.