VISUALIZATION

San Francisco – NEC Solutions America announced today that a 32-processor server from NEC, based on the future Intel® Itanium® 2 processor 6M (code-named “Madison”), running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition for 64-bit and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition (64-bit), has achieved the world's best TPC-C** benchmark result for a non-clustered, 32-processor SMP server. In addition to posting the fastest performance metrics, the NEC Express5800/1320Xc server delivered the best price/performance value among the top ten non-clustered high performance computing systems ($ 11.50/tpmC). These groundbreaking results demonstrate that the most demanding scalability and throughput requirements can be achieved on Windows and Intel based servers from NEC Solutions America.*** TPC-C is an industry-standard benchmark for measuring a system's processing performance based on an enterprise transaction model for handling orders. The 514,034.72 tpmC transactions per minute (tpmC) benchmark score achieved by the NEC Express5800/1320Xc system was accomplished while running Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition (64-bit) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition for 64-bit, using the Intel Itanium 2 processor 6M (Madison). With this configuration, the NEC Solutions server provides a 148 percent price/performance advantage when compared with the previous record holder, the Fujitsu PRIMEPOWER 2000 (455,818 tpmC; $28.58/tpmC). “This benchmark is a historic milestone for the database industry and a testament to the performance and scalability customers can achieve on Windows and Intel technology,” said Gordon Mangione, corporate vice president for SQL Server at Microsoft Corp. “NEC’s numbers achieved on the 64-bit versions of SQL Server 2000 and Windows Server 2003 running on Itanium 2-based servers proves once and for all that customers now have an alternative to expensive Unix-based solutions.” The benefits of 64-bit computing for commercial and business applications include 64-bit addressing of large-scale data sets. 32-bit systems operating today can address far fewer memory addresses than 64-bit systems, which can address hundreds of gigabytes of memory addresses. This provides outstanding system responsiveness for mission-critical enterprise applications. In addition to providing 64-bit memory addressing, NEC’s design with the Itanium 2 processor 6M provides an expanded system bus, large number of registers and nearly unlimited virtual memory. The NEC Express5800/1000 server series has also been designed to incorporate future Itanium processor families without requiring additional hardware upgrades, thus sustaining their leading edge technology edge at minimal costs. All attributes are key infrastructure benefits designed to take full advantage of Microsoft’s 64-bit operating system and enterprise database application. Performance Results Throughput 514,034.72 tpmC Cost performance $11.50 per tpmC Availability Date October 22, 2003 System NEC Express5800/1320Xc Server CPU Intel Itanium 2 processors 6M (Madison) (1.5GHz/6MB 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, 64-bit Database Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition, 64-bit “NEC’s new watermark TPC-C result is a testament to the outstanding scalability and performance of the Itanium 2 processor and NEC’s platforms,” said Jason Waxman, director of enterprise performance marketing, Enterprise Platforms Group, Intel. “With this new result, NEC, Microsoft and Intel are continuing to drive performance up and price/performance down, further delivering value beyond proprietary, RISC-based systems.” “The price/performance value reflected by this record-setting benchmark should set an entirely new expectation level among IT executives,” said Mike Mitsch, senior director, NEC Solutions America, Server Solutions Division. “Working closely with Intel and Microsoft we’re driving incredible performance gains that present a simplified, less costly option for high performance computing.” The high-performance NEC Express5800/1320Xc server, with 32 Itanium 2 processors, is currently available for order North America. Systems configured as tested for the TPC benchmark tests will be available beginning October 22, 2003. The NEC Express5800/1000 server series also includes 8-way and 16-way systems, which are available for order today. Further information about the server is available at www.nec64.com or by calling 866-632-3226. Intel Itanium 2 Processor 6M (Madison) The Intel Itanium 2 processor 6M, due to ship this summer, will be the third 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. Systems based on the Itanium 2 processor 6M are expected to deliver 30 to 50 percent more performance than today’s Itanium-based systems. * The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. **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, 514,034.72 tpmC, $11.50/tpmC, with thirty two (32) Intel® Itanium® 2 processor 6M at 1.5 GHz, each with 6MB iL3 cache, running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition 64-bit and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 64-bit, with 512 GB RAM; Available: 10/22/2003. ***Source www.tpc.org: Fujitsu PRIMEPOWER 2000, 455,818 tpmC, $28.58 price/tpmC, Database - SymfoWARE Server Enterp. Ed. 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