Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2001/09/12/ibm_touts_worlds_fastest_midrange/

IBM touts world's fastest midrange server

Unix bragging rights

By John Leyden

Posted in On-Prem, 12th September 2001 15:56 GMT

IBM is shipping "the world's most powerful midrange server", claiming that it outperforms larger and more expensive Sun Microsystems boxes.

The eight-way p660 Model 6M1, which includes a 750 MHz RS64 IV processors featuring IBM's copper and silicon-on-insulator technologies, beat every Sun system with under 24 processor in Java and Web-serving benchmarking tests.

In a Java performance (SPECjbb2000 benchmark), an eight-way IBM p660 6M1 reportedly handled 15 per cent more operations per second than Sun's more expensive 12-way UltraSPARC III-based Sun Fire 6800. It processed 80 per cent more operations per second than an eight-way 9000 N4000 from Hewlett-Packard.

The IBM p660 6M1 scored 93 rent of the performance of Sun's 12-way UltraSPARC III-based Sun Fire 4810 in a Web serving, SPECweb99 benchmark.

With the pSeries server, IBM has introduced Capacity Upgrade on Demand program to mid-range systems as well as self-healing and self-managing technologies (such as Dynamic Processor Deallocation and Chipkill) more commonly seen in more complex systems.

In the run up to an important server launches by both HP and Sun later this month, IBM has taken off the gloves in the fight for leadership of the multi-million dollar Unix market.

According to IBM, the eight-way p660 Model 6M1 is two-thirds of the price of the Sun-Fire 6800 used in the Java performance benchmark tests, based on figures it had obtained from DH Brown. ®

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