New quad-core SPARC64 VII processors offer 25 percent better performance than the previous version and an enhanced memory controller for the SPARC Enterprise server line, Sun and Fujitsu announced. The new processors are the second in-box upgrade delivered for this product family and are available as an option for existing SPARC Enterprise servers needing an upgrade.

The SPARC Enterprise M4000 and M5000 processors run at 2.53GHz, while the M8000 and M9000 run at 2.88GHz, according to Sun and Fujitsu. All four offer greater single-thread and overall system performance, while the upgraded memory controller in the M8000 and M9000 improves throughput in systems running memory-intensive workloads.

The SPARC Enterprise servers are the only systems on the market with the ability to mix SPARC64 VI and VII processors in a single domain, the two companies report.

"Our SPARC Enterprise servers with the Solaris OS offer a compelling combination of mainframe class performance and reliability as well as virtualization and consolidation capabilities in an open system," said John Fowler, executive vice president of Sun’s Systems Group.

Fowler said the new quad-core SPARC64 processors provide mainframe-class computing at a lower cost than IBM technologies. "The update we're announcing today makes it possible for customers to increase the performance of mission-critical enterprise applications while capitalizing on existing infrastructure investments with upgrades at half the cost of IBM," noted Fowler.

Benchmarks

Three benchmarks were cited to demonstrate the SPARC Enterprise servers performance:

• Two-tier SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark: The SPARC Enterprise M9000 server (32 processors, 128 cores, 256 threads), delivered a new world record result on the two-tier SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) Standard Application Benchmark with 17,430 SAP SD Benchmark users for all systems running the SAP enhancement package 4 for the SAP ERP 6.0 application (Unicode). Competitors, including IBM, have not published two-tier SAP SD Unicode benchmark results on their enterprise-class systems.

The SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark represents the critical tasks performed in real-world ERP business environments and demonstrates the performance of systems running order- and invoice-processing workloads.

• SPEC CPU2006: The SPARC Enterprise M9000 server, equipped with 64 SPARC64 VII 2.88 GHz processors, posted the best single system UNIX result on the SPECint_rate_base2006 benchmark, beating the best published IBM POWER6 UNIX result by 32 percent. Running the Solaris 10 OS and Sun Studio 12 Update 1 software, the new top-of-the-line SPARC Enterprise M9000 server also holds the single system UNIX record on the SPECfp_rate_base2006 benchmark and outscored the top-of-the-line 5.0GHz POWER6-based IBM Power 595 server.

SPEC CPU2006 is a CPU-intensive benchmark suite, stressing a system's processor, memory subsystem and compiler with two sets of benchmarks -- one set measures integer-intensive performance and the other set measures compute-intensive floating point performance.

• Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise Payroll 9.0: The SPARC Enterprise M4000 server, equipped with four SPARC 64 VII 2.53 GHz processors, achieved world record performance on this HCM application benchmark with 250,000 employee payroll checks processed using Oracle Database 11g running on the Solaris 10 OS.

The PeopleSoft Enterprise 9.0 Payroll (North America) benchmark represents typical OLTP workloads for a large organization processing employee payroll. The application calculates gross to net earnings, deductions and taxes

Availability

The new SPARC Enterprise systems are available directly from Sun and Fujitsu and their authorized resellers. Both the Fujitsu-branded and Sun-branded SPARC Enterprise servers offer identical features.

More Information

Sun SPARC Enterprise Systems - Product Page

Upgrade Programs

SPECcpu2006 Results On MSeries Servers With Updated SPARC64 VII Processors - BestPerf blog

SAP 2-tier SD Benchmark on Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000/32 SPARC64 VII

Oracle Hyperion, M5000 with SPARC64 VII processors, Sun Storage 7410 - BestPerf blog

Benchmarks

Sun Services [...read more...]

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