BM Seer Unofficial thoughts from an anonymous Sun employee

Not comparing E25k & p595

Tuesday Apr 10, 2007

I would compare a 144 core Sun E25K vs. a 64-core IBM p595.

IBM always pitches the more expensive slower p595 against an E25K, and thinks just because it has 64-cores it is better. Why?

  • The Sun Fire E25K 144-core is less expensive than a 64-core IBM p595, on the same application.
  • The Sun Fire E25K 144-core is faster than a 64-core IBM p595, on the same application.
  • Sun Fire E25K even has newer processors than used in the TPC-H result below. Last week we announced 1.95GHz.
  • I'm not sure but the Sun Fire E25K 144-core may even be smaller than the 64-core IBM p595.

    Hey wait they aren't comparable! I guess you buy IBM if you want something older, more costly, and slower. Aren't you glad you can still go to IBM and buy fewer cores. :)

    For some reason IBM thinks 64-cores sounds cheaper and faster than 144 cores, but it isn't true.

    Core count doesn't matter, systems matter! The straight scoop comes from Sun.

      IBM thinks it is about the core count or performance per core. Get real. It is about the whole system. You can do the math based on the info in the TPC-H submissions below...
      Sun: $4,207,126 /144 core = ?
      IBM: $5,358,874 /64 core = ?

      It is clear to see that IBM's cores each cost more than 2.5 times more than Sun's cores. Before you get too confused with 'rotten-to-the-core-math', just remember this. The IBM system costs more and the IBM system is a slower on the TPC-H benchmark. http://blogs.sun.com/bmseer/entry/database_world_record_sun_us.

      • The Sun Fire E25K 1.8GHz outperformed the IBM p5-595 (Power5+) by 14% and also had 31% better price/performance. Also beat the p595 by 26% on the multi-user test (Throughput).
      • The Sun Fire E25K beat the HP Integrity Superdome (Itanium2) by 60% on performance and 34% on price/performance. Sun also beat the Itanium2 Superdome by 72% for the multi-user test (Throughput).
      • Last week Sun announced Sun Fire E25K systems with 1.95GHz processors.

      TPC-H Disclosure Statement:

      Sun Fire E25K 114,713.7 QphH@3000GB, $36.68/QphH@3000GB, avail 04/09/07, HP BladeSystem ProLiant BL25p cluster 64p DC 110,576.5 QohH@3000GB, $37.80/QphH@3000GB avail 06/08/06, Sun Fire E25K 105430.9 QphH@3000GB, $54.87/QphH@3000GB, avail 01/23/06, IBM eServer p5 595 100,512.3 QphH@3000GB, $53.32/QphH@3000GB, avail 03/01/06, HP Integrity Superdome 71,847.8 QphH@3000GB, $55.79/QphH@3000GB, avail 01/18/06, Sun Fire E25K 59,435.7 QphH@3000GB, $100.66/QphH@3000GB, avail 07/27/05, TPC-H, QphH, $/QphH tm of Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). More info www.tpc.org.

      Several anon commenters keep bringing up licensing per core. Yes, Sun has more cores, but the pricing listed in this posting accounts for that. Sun is lower cost even with more than double the cores of IBM.

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    Posted at 08:52AM Apr 10, 2007 in Benchmarks
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    • Funny math to the core

    Monday Apr 09, 2007

    IBM thinks it is about the core count or performance per core. Get real. It is about the whole system. You can do the math based on the info in the TPC-H submissions below...
    Sun: $4,207,126 /144 core = ?
    IBM: $5,358,874 /64 core = ?

    It is clear to see that IBM's cores each cost more than 2.5 times more than Sun's cores. Before you get too confused with 'rotten-to-the-core-math', just remember this. The IBM system costs more and the IBM system is a slower on the TPC-H benchmark. http://blogs.sun.com/bmseer/entry/database_world_record_sun_us.

    • The Sun Fire E25K 1.8GHz outperformed the IBM p5-595 (Power5+) by 14% and also had 31% better price/performance. Also beat the p595 by 26% on the multi-user test (Throughput).
    • The Sun Fire E25K beat the HP Integrity Superdome (Itanium2) by 60% on performance and 34% on price/performance. Sun also beat the Itanium2 Superdome by 72% for the multi-user test (Throughput).
    • Last week Sun announced Sun Fire E25K systems with 1.95GHz processors.

    TPC-H Disclosure Statement:

    Sun Fire E25K 114,713.7 QphH@3000GB, $36.68/QphH@3000GB, avail 04/09/07, HP BladeSystem ProLiant BL25p cluster 64p DC 110,576.5 QohH@3000GB, $37.80/QphH@3000GB avail 06/08/06, Sun Fire E25K 105430.9 QphH@3000GB, $54.87/QphH@3000GB, avail 01/23/06, IBM eServer p5 595 100,512.3 QphH@3000GB, $53.32/QphH@3000GB, avail 03/01/06, HP Integrity Superdome 71,847.8 QphH@3000GB, $55.79/QphH@3000GB, avail 01/18/06, Sun Fire E25K 59,435.7 QphH@3000GB, $100.66/QphH@3000GB, avail 07/27/05, TPC-H, QphH, $/QphH tm of Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). More info www.tpc.org.

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    Posted at 03:43PM Apr 09, 2007 in IBM Follies
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