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INTEL DEVELOPER FORUM, SAN JOSE – NEC Solutions America, Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corp., announced today that a 32-processor, Itanium® 2-based server from NEC Solutions has achieved the world's best TPC-C benchmark result on a 32-processor SMP platform. These impressive results demonstrate that customers will be able to achieve outstanding performance and scalability without the traditional costs associated with proprietary 64-bit computing. The 433,107** transactions per minute (tpmC) benchmark scores achieved by the NEC Express5800/1320Xc system were run on Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Enterprise Edition* (64-bit) using Microsoft Windows® Server 2003 Datacenter Edition for 64-Bit, Itanium-Based Systems. The NEC Solutions server also took advantage of a Qlogic™ VI/SAN solution that consists of the SANblade™ QLA2350 VI/SAN NIC and SANbox2® FC switch. When tested, the hardware and software together exceed the performance of the best published 32-processor RISC based system***. Because it is based on industry-standard, non-proprietary Intel chips and Microsoft software, the NEC Solutions server offers a 25 percent advantage on price/performance compared with the 32-way IBM p690 solution ($17.75/tpmC). TPC-C is an industry-standard benchmark for measuring a system's processing performance based on an enterprise transaction model for handling orders. Performance results Throughput 433,107.77 tpmC Cost performance $12.98 per tpmC Availability Date June 30, 2003 System NEC Express5800/1320Xc Server CPU Intel Itanium 2 processors (1GHz/3MB tertiary cache) (32 processors used) System memory 512 GB FC NIC/Switch SANblade QLA2350 / SANBox2 FC Switch from QLogic OS Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition Database Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition (64-bit) The high-performance NEC Express5800/1320Xc Server, with up to 32 Itanium 2 processors, is currently available for order in Japan and North America. NEC will introduce this product worldwide in 2003 with Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition for large scale enterprise computing. The server features high-speed processing, and high scalability, reliability and availability, resulting from NEC's extensive knowledge and experience with supercomputers and mainframe systems. "The TPC-C results achieved with the 32-processor Itanium 2-based system is a testimony to the outstanding performance and scalability of the Itanium architecture and the NEC Solutions platform," said Mike Fister, senior vice president and general manager, Intel Enterprise Platforms Group. "With this result, the Itanium 2 processor continues to show that it is truly the best in its class, exceeding the performance of even the most competitive RISC platforms." "Customers using Microsoft solutions have long benefited from the top price-performance available through Windows and SQL Server. By using the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition and SQL Server 2000 (64-bit), NEC and Intel have taken performance to the next level, achieving an extraordinary non-clustered TPC-C result,” said Gordon Mangione, corporate vice president for SQL Server at Microsoft. “This new record benchmark is exciting because it shows that customers are able to deploy high-performance applications at the low cost of ownership they have come to expect from Microsoft. This is more evidence that powerful hardware and chip technology combined with innovative software offers customers the best solution across the board." "The breakthrough TPC-C results are truly an engineering achievement of the highest order. Integrating Microsoft and Intel technologies with NEC’s supercomputing and mainframe technologies means the best of all worlds is coming together,” said Mike Mitsch, Sr. Director, NEC Solutions America, Server Division. “NEC’s technology is used in systems like the Earth Simulator, the fastest computer on earth****. The price / performance of Microsoft and Intel technology is incredible considering that their products are ubiquitous and yet can leverage the most sophisticated hardware technology available today. A very strong case can now be made for cutting equipment and management costs while dramatically improving performance.” Intel Itanium 2 Processor The Intel Itanium 2 processor is the second in the Itanium processor family, a line of enterprise-class processors from Intel that brings the performance and volume economics of Intel Architecture to the most data-intensive business-critical and technical computing applications. Itanium 2-based systems deliver up to twice the performance of Itanium-based systems, and the Itanium 2 processor is socket-compatible with two future generations of the Itanium processor family, enabling these 2003 and 2004 processors to be easily swapped into existing Itanium 2-based systems. Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 is a comprehensive, integrated and secure infrastructure designed to help customers reduce costs and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of IT operations. Building on Windows 2000 family strengths, the new server platform helps customers extend existing resources while laying the foundation for building a new generation of connected applications that improve business productivity. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition is the complete database and analysis offering for rapidly delivering the next generation of scalable e-commerce, line-of-business and data warehousing solutions. SQL Server 2000 (64-bit) is built to take advantage of hardware enhancements of the 64-bit platform. It utilizes the advanced memory addressing capability to support the rapid growth of mission-critical applications and data support demanded by enterprises today. NEC intends to enhance and expand Intel Itanium 2 processor-based servers running the Windows Server 2003 integrated server platform to meet mission-critical business needs for the enterprise. Further information about the NEC Express5800/1000 series of 64-bit systems can be found at www.nec64.com. **TPC-C is one of the Transaction Processing Performance Council's standard benchmarks for measuring computer system performance. Performance is evaluated based on a model of enterprise transaction processing. Benchmark results are expressed in terms of how many transactions are performed per minute (tpmC). NEC Express5800/1320Xc, 433,107.77 tpmC, $12.98/tpmC, with thirty two (32) Intel Itanium® 2 processors at 1.0 GHz, each with 3MB iL3 cache, running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 64-bit, with 512 GB RAM; Available: 6/30/2003