The TPC BenchmarkTM H (TPC-H) is a Decision Support benchmark that evaluates the performance of various Decision Support systems by the execution of sets of queries against a standard database under controlled conditions. In this particular instance, as reported by Joerg Moellenkamp in his blog, a Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000 using Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Enterprise Edition and with partitioning and automatic storage management was pitted against an IBM p595, with both servers at the same 3 TB scaling factor. The Sun M9000-32 was reported to yield 188,229 QphH@3000GB with 32 processors, 128 cores, resulting in $23.99/QphH@3000GB.

With the same amount of memory in both systems, the IBM p595 fully blown processor-wise with 32 processors and 64 cores was able to yield 156,537 QphH@3000GB.

Moellenkamp observes that the Sun M9000 is able to yield 20.246 percent more performance than the IBM system, achieving the best non-clustered TPC-H@3TB result.

This benchmark uses the current top end machine of IBM in a fully blown configuration, Moellenkamp notes, adding that the Sun machine has some growth potential in reserve, as users could still opt for the M9000-64 with 64 sockets.

Still, using the same number of sockets, the p595 needs fewer cores for the same job. So the core-based pricing with Oracle would take a larger dent out of the budget with the Sun system than with the IBM system, when using the same db.

Given that the p6 core has a multiplier of 1, whereas the SPARC64 core has a multiplier of 0.75, 64 Oracle cores with IBM versus 96 Oracle cores with Sun somewhat compromises the $/perf metric, Moellenkamp notes, despite the point that the hardware is significantly cheaper.

The IBM result was done with Sybase IQ Single Application Server Edition v.15.1 ESD #1.2, which Moellenkamp labels a somewhat specialized database engine for reporting, analytics, and data warehousing. That's interesting as TPC-H is the decision support benchmark in the TPC benchmark.

He adds that the limits of Sybase IQ SASE may explain why the data base license is really cheap compared to Oracle. The Sun result used Oracle Database 11g Release 2 Enterprise Edition. Moellenkamp argues that it would be useful to see an IBM result with a general purpose database, too.

Another suggestion, the author adds, is it would be helpful for there to be a socket-based licensing scheme in the future.

More Information

TPC-H@3000GB World Record Single-System Sun/Oracle - BestPerf blog entry

Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000 Server

Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000/32 SPARC 64 VII Results on SAP-SD 2-Tier App Benchmark

Sun Blueprints Online: 'Sun SPARC Enterprise M-Series Servers Configuration Concepts

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