BestPerf: Performance & Best Practices

This week, Sun continues to highlight the record-breaking performance of its latest update to the chip multi-threaded (CMT) Sun SPARC Enterprise server family running Solaris.  Some of these benchmarks leverage the use of a variety of Sun's unique technologies including ZFS, SSD, various Storage Products and many more. These benchmarks were blogged about by various members or our team and the URLs are shown below.

Messages

• Sun's CMT is the most powerful CPU regardless of architectural/implementation details (#transistors, #cores, threads, MHz, etc.)!
• Performance tests show that Sun can outperform IBM Power6 by more than 2x on a variety of benchmarks.
• Performance tests show Sun's new 1.6GHz CMT systems can be 20% faster than Sun's previous generation 1.4GHz processors, given Sun's continual advancements in both hardware and software.

Benchmark Results Recently Blogged

Sun T5440 Oracle BI EE World Record Performance
http://blogs.sun.com/BestPerf/entry/sun_t5440_oracle_bi_ee

Sun T5440 World Record SAP-SD 4-Processor Two-tier SAP ERP 6.0 EP 4 (Unicode), Beats IBM POWER6 (note1)
http://blogs.sun.com/BestPerf/entry/sun_t5440_world_record_sap

Zeus ZXTM Traffic Manager World Record on Sun T5240
http://blogs.sun.com/BestPerf/entry/top_performance_on_sun_sparc

Sun T5440 SPECjbb2005, Sun 1.6GHz T2 Plus chip is 2.3x IBM 4.7GHz POWER6 chip
http://blogs.sun.com/BestPerf/entry/sun_t5440_specjbb2005_beats_ibm

New SPECjAppServer2004 Performance on the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440
http://blogs.sun.com/BestPerf/entry/new_specjappserver2004_performance_on_sun

1.6 GHz SPEC CPU2006: World Record 4-chip system, Rate Benchmarks, Beats IBM POWER6
http://blogs.sun.com/BestPerf/entry/1_6_ghz_spec_cpu2006

Sun Blade T6320 World Record 1-chip SPECjbb2005 performance, Sun 1.6GHz T2 Plus chip is 2.6x IBM 4.7GHz POWER6 chip
http://blogs.sun.com/BestPerf/entry/new_specjbb2005_performance_on_the

Comparison Table

Benchmark	Sun CMT	Tier	Software	Key Messages
Oracle BI EE	Sun T5440	Appl, Database	Oracle 11g, Oracle BIEE, ZFS, Solaris	World Record: T5440 Achieved 28,000 users Reference
SAP-SD 2-Tier	Sun T5440	Appl, Database	SAP ECC 6.0,EP4 Oracle 10g, Solaris	World Record 4-socket: T5440 T5440 Beats 4-socket IBM 550 5GHz Power6 by 26% (note1) T5440 Beats HP DL585 G6 4-socket Opteron (note1) Unicode version
SPECjAppServer 2004	Sun T5440	Appl, Database	Oracle WebLogic, Oracle 11g, JDK 1.6.0_14, Solaris	World Record Single System (Appl Tier): T5440 T5440 is 6.4x faster of IBM Power 570 4.7GHz Power6 T5440 is 73% faster than HP DL 580 G5 Xeon 6C Oracle Fusion Middleware
Sun T5440 SPECjbb2005	Sun T5440	Appl	Java HotSpot, OpenSolaris	1.6GHz US T2 Plus CPU is 2.3x faster of IBM 4.7GHz Power6 CPU 1.6GHz US T2 Plus CPU is 21% faster than previous generation 1.4GHz US T2 Plus CPU Sun T5440 has 2.3x better power/perf than the IBM 570 (8 4.7GHz Power6)
Sun Blade T6320 SPECjbb2005	Sun T6320	Appl	Java HotSpot, OpenSolaris	World Record 1-socket: T6320 1.6GHz US T2 Plus CPU is 2.6x faster than IBM 4.7GHz Power6 CPU T6320 is 3% faster than Fujitsu 3.16GHz Xeon QC
SPEC CPU2006	Sun T5440, Sun T5240, Sun T5220, Sun T5120, Sun T6320	all tiers	Sun Studio12, Solaris, ZFS	World Record 4-socket: T5440 1.6GHz US T2 Plus CPU is 2.6x faster than IBM 4.7GHz Power6 CPU T6320 is 3% faster than Fujitsu 3.16GHz Xeon QC
Zeus ZXTM Traffic Manager	Sun T5240	Web	Zeus ZXTM v5.1r1, Solaris	World Record: T5240 T5240 Beats f5 BIG-IP VIPRON by 34%; 2.6x better $/perf T5240 Beats f5 BIG-IP 8800 by 91%; 2.7x better $/perf⁞ T5240 Beats Citrix 12000 by 2.2x; 3.3x better $/perf No IBM result

Virtualization

Sun's announcement also included updated virtualization software (LDOMs 1.1). Downloads are available to existing SPARC Enterprise server customers at: http://www.sun.com/servers/coolthreads/ldoms/index.jsp.  Also look the the blog posting "LDoms for Dummies" at http://blogs.sun.com/PierreReynes/entry/ldoms_for_dummies

Try & Buy Program

Sun is also offering free 60-day trials on Sun CMT servers with with a very popular Try and Buy program: http://www.sun.com/tryandbuy.

Benchmark Performance Disclosure Statements (the URLs listed above go into more detail on each of these benchmarks)

Note1: 4-processor world record on the 2-tier SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark with 4720 SD User, as of July 23, 2009, IBM System 550 (4 processors, 8 cores, 16 threads) 3,752 SAP SD Users, 4x 5 GHz Power6, 64 GB memory, DB2 9.5, AIX 6.1, Cert# 2009023. T5440 beats HP new 4-socket Opteron Servers (HPDL585 G6 with 4665 SD User and HP BL685c G6 with 4422 SD User)

Two-tier SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) standard SAP ERP 6.0 2005/EP4 (Unicode) application benchmarks as of 07/21/09: Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 Server (4 processors, 32 cores, 256 threads) 4,720 SAP SD Users, 4x 1.6 GHz UltraSPARC T2 Plus, 256 GB memory, Oracle10g, Solaris10, Cert# 2009026. HP ProLiant DL585 G6 (4 processors, 24 cores, 24 threads) 4,665 SAP SD Users, 4x 2.8 GHz AMD Opteron Processor 8439 SE, 64 GB memory, SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, Cert# 2009025. HP ProLiant BL685c G6 (4 processors, 24 cores, 24 threads) 4,422 SAP SD Users, 4x 2.6 GHz AMD Opteron Processor 8435, 64 GB memory, SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, Cert# 2009021. IBM System 550 (4 processors, 8 cores, 16 threads) 3,752 SAP SD Users, 4x 5 GHz Power6, 64 GB memory, DB2 9.5, AIX 6.1, Cert# 2009023. HP ProLiant DL585 G5 (4 processors, 16 cores, 16 threads) 3,430 SAP SD Users, 4x 3.1 GHz AMD Opteron Processor 8393 SE, 64 GB memory, SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, Cert# 2009008. HP ProLiant BL685 G6 (4 processors, 16 cores, 16 threads) 3,118 SAP SD Users, 4x 2.9 GHz AMD Opteron Processor 8389, 64 GB memory, SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, Cert# 2009007. NEC Express5800 (4 processors, 24 cores, 24 threads) 2,957 SAP SD Users, 4x 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon Processor X7460, 64 GB memory, SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, Cert# 2009018. Dell PowerEdge M905 (4 processors, 16 cores, 16 threads) 2,129 SAP SD Users, 4x 2.7 GHz AMD Opteron Processor 8384, 96 GB memory, SQL Server 2005, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Cert# 2009017. Sun Fire X4600M2 (8 processors, 32 cores, 32 threads) 7,825 SAP SD Users, 8x 2.7 GHz AMD Opteron 8384, 128 GB memory, MaxDB 7.6, Solaris 10, Cert# 2008070. IBM System x3650 M2 (2 Processors, 8 Cores, 16 Threads) 5,100 SAP SD users,2x 2.93 Ghz Intel Xeon X5570, DB2 9.5, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Cert# 2008079. HP ProLiant DL380 G6 (2 processors, 8 cores, 16 threads) 4,995 SAP SD Users, 2x 2.93 GHz Intel Xeon x5570, 48 GB memory, SQL Server 2005, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Cert# 2008071. SAP, R/3, reg TM of SAP AG in Germany and other countries. More info www.sap.com/benchmark.

Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition benchmark, see http://www.oracle.com/solutions/business_intelligence/resource-library-whitepapers.html for more. Results as of 7/20/09.

Zeus is TM of Zeus Technology Limited. Results as of 7/21/2009 on http://www.zeus.com/news/press_articles/zeus-price-performance-press-release.html?gclid=CLn4jLuuk5cCFQsQagod7gTkJA.

SPEC, SPECint, SPECfp reg tm of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Competitive results from www.spec.org as of 16 July 2009. Sun's new results quoted on this page have been submitted to SPEC. Sun Blade T6320 89.2 SPECint_rate_base2006, 96.7 SPECint_rate2006, 64.1 SPECfp_rate_base2006, 68.5 SPECfp_rate2006; Sun SPARC Enterprise T5220/T5120 89.1 SPECint_rate_base2006, 97.0 SPECint_rate2006, 64.1 SPECfp_rate_base2006, 68.5 SPECfp_rate2006; Sun SPARC Enterprise T5240 172 SPECint_rate_base2006, 183 SPECint_rate2006, 124 SPECfp_rate_base2006, 133 SPECfp_rate2006; Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 338 SPECint_rate_base2006, 360 SPECint_rate2006, 254 SPECfp_rate_base2006, 270 SPECfp_rate2006; Sun Blade T6320 76.4 SPECint_rate_base2006, 85.5 SPECint_rate2006, 58.1 SPECfp_rate_base2006, 62.3 SPECfp_rate2006; Sun SPARC Enterprise T5220/T5120 76.2 SPECint_rate_base2006, 83.9 SPECint_rate2006, 57.9 SPECfp_rate_base2006, 62.3 SPECfp_rate2006; Sun SPARC Enterprise T5240 142 SPECint_rate_base2006, 157 SPECint_rate2006, 111 SPECfp_rate_base2006, 119 SPECfp_rate2006; Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 270 SPECint_rate_base2006, 301 SPECint_rate2006, 212 SPECfp_rate_base2006, 230 SPECfp_rate2006; IBM p 570 53.2 SPECint_rate_base2006, 60.9 SPECint_rate2006, 51.5 SPECfp_rate_base2006, 58.0 SPECfp_rate2006; IBM Power 520 102 SPECint_rate_base2006, 124 SPECint_rate2006, 88.7 SPECfp_rate_base2006, 105 SPECfp_rate2006; IBM Power 550 215 SPECint_rate_base2006, 263 SPECint_rate2006, 188 SPECfp_rate_base2006, 222 SPECfp_rate2006; HP Integrity BL870c 114 SPECint_rate_base2006; HP Integrity rx7640 87.4 SPECfp_rate_base2006, 90.8 SPECfp_rate2006.

SPEC, SPECjbb reg tm of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Results as of 7/17/2009 on http://www.spec.org. SPECjbb2005, Sun Blade T6320 229576 SPECjbb2005 bops, 28697 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM; IBM p 570 88089 SPECjbb2005 bops, 88089 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM; Fujitsu TX100 223691 SPECjbb2005 bops, 111846 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM; IBM x3350 194256 SPECjbb2005 bops, 97128 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM; Sun SPARC Enterprise T5120 192055 SPECjbb2005 bops, 24007 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM.

SPECjAppServer2004, Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 (4 chips, 32 cores) 7661.16 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard; HP DL580 G5 (4 chips, 24 cores) 4410.07 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard; HP DL580 G5 (4 chips, 16 cores) 3339.94 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard; Two Dell PowerEdge 2950 (4 chips, 16 cores) 4794.33 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard; Dell PowerEdge R610 (2 chips, 8 cores) 3975.13 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard; Two Dell PowerEdge R610 (4 chips, 16 cores) 7311.50 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard; IBM Power 570 (2 chips, 4 cores) 1197.51 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard; SPEC, SPECjAppServer reg tm of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Results from http://www.spec.org as of 7/20/09.

SPECjbb2005 Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 (4 chips, 32 cores) 841380 SPECjbb2005 bops, 26293 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM. Results submitted to SPEC. HP DL585 G5 (4 chips, 24 cores) 937207 SPECjbb2005 bops, 234302 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM. IBM Power 570 (8 chips, 16 cores) 798752 SPECjbb2005 bops, 99844 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM. Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 (4 chips, 32 cores) 692736 SPECjbb2005 bops, 21648 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM. SPEC, SPECjbb reg tm of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Results from www.spec.org as of 7/20/09.

IBM p 570 8P 4.7GHz (4 building blocks) power specifications calculated as 80% of maximum input power reported 7/8/09 in “Facts and Features Report”: ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/common/ssi/pm/br/n/psb01628usen/PSB01628USEN.PDF