Sun Microsystems Sun Fire Servers Blow Away IBM, Dell

Solaris 10 Operating System and Sun Java Platform, Standard Edition 5.0 Set Multiple World Record Server-Side Java Benchmarks Across Sun Fire Server Line -- Sun Microsystems, the creator and leading advocate of Java technology, today announced that industry-leading Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers running open source UltraSPARC T1 processors and the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) -- the most advanced operating system on the planet -- set world-records for performance and blew away competitive systems from Dell/Microsoft and IBM/AIX in recent SPEC Java Business benchmark (SPECjbb2005) testing. Sun also extended its lead in performance per watt and SWaP ratings, further demonstrating CoolThreads systems as the most efficient platform ever for delivery of web and application services. The Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers equipped with the single UltraSPARC T1 processor and Solaris 10 OS out-performed a range of Intel Xeon-based 2-4 way servers running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 OS, and IBM 2-4 way Power 5 and p5+ based servers running AIX, all while consuming less power, resulting in over 5X better performance per watt, and up to 4X less space -- critical factors affecting data center efficiency, capacity, and costs. These latest benchmark tests showed: -- The Sun Fire T1000 demonstrated a 2.5X time performance advantage over an equivalent dual processor Xeon-based server from Dell, and nearly 2X performance versus a 2-Way IBM Power 5 based server, while requiring 4X less space; -- The Sun Fire T1000 Server also demonstrated up to 5X better performance per watt than competitive systems; -- The Sun Fire T2000 demonstrated nearly 2X performance advantage over an 4-Way Xeon-based server from IBM, and 1/3 more performance versus a IBM's latest 4-way p5+ based server. Performance per watt was at least x2 higher than the Dell/Microsoft and IBM/AIX systems described above. -- Java Platform, Standard Edition 5.0_08 with Java HotSpot Virtual Machine technology and compiled with Sun Studio compilers extends Sun's best in class Java server performance with two new SPECjbb2005 world records running the open-source Ultra SPARC T1 processor, demonstrating performance gains exceeding 17% over previous performance numbers using Java SE 5.0_06. Sun's CoolThreads servers also deliver compelling price / performance: the Sun Fire T1000 server starts at just $2,995 and the Sun Fire T2000 Server at $7,795. In addition, the Sun Fire X4100 and X4200 servers, which are powered by the fastest AMD Opteron Model 256 processors, set two new World records on SPECjbb2005 benchmark, highlighting the performance of the Java Platform, Standard Edition 5.0_08. The benchmark stresses overall JVM performance, producing two equally important metrics -- total system throughput (bops) and JVM scalability (bops/JVM). The Sun Fire X4000 family of servers, which were running the Solaris 10 OS, established the new high scores of 38,090 bops and 32,018 bops/JVM, for all 2-socket systems, demonstrating that Java HotSpot Server Virtual Machine continues to deliver outstanding results and optimized performance regardless of the underlying system architecture. The SPECjbb Benchmark SPECjbb2005 (Java Business Benchmark) measures the performance of a Java implemented application tier (server-side Java) based on the order processing in a wholesale supplier application. It also measures the performance of CPUs, caches, memory hierarchy and the scalability of shared memory processors (SMPs). The metrics given are number of bops (Business Operations per Second) and bops/Java Virtual Machine .