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TPC-H 100GB Sun Fire X4100, Paraccel World Record Performance and $/Perf

Tuesday Oct 30, 2007

Paraccel & Sun didn't just do one benchmark, we did it at three different sizes: TPC-H 1000GB, TPC-H 300GB, and now the 100GB details below.

in the TPC-H 1000GB blog entry we also talked about Paraccel's pricing innovations.

This benchmark result demonstrates that a shared-nothing cluster of Sun Fire X4100s achieves the best performance and, simulatenously, the best price/performance among all TPC-H@100GB submissions. Each of the 15 node in the cluster was powered by 2 dual-core 2.8GHz Opteron processors.

Specifically, the Sun Fire X4100 cluster achieved a QphH@100GB of 98,857 together with $/QphH@100GB of $2.65. The performance is more than 5 times the previously reported best performance and the price/performance is almost twice as good as the previously reported best price/performance.

Competitive Landscape TPC-H @100GB Performance:

$/QphH = TPC-H Price/Performance metric (smaller is better)
QphH = TPC-H Composite Metric (bigger is better)

System Socket/
Core/
Thread		 CPU Type GHz QphH $/
QphH
 Total $ DBMS
 Avail # Clust node
Sun Fire X4100
 30/ 60/ 60
 Opt 2.8GHz 98,857 2.65
 263,460.06
 Paraccel
 10/29/07 15
HP DL585 G2
 4/ 8/ 8
 Opt 2.8GHz 19323
 10.67
 205,988
 SQLS
 1/16/07 1
Dell PE6950
 4/ 8/ 8 Opt 2.8GHz 17180
 7.64
 131,204
 SQLS
 12/04/06 1
HP DL580 G4
 4/8/8 Xeon 3.4GHz 17120
 7.91
 135,384
 SQLS
 11/22/06 1
Dell PE2900
 2/ 8/ 8 Xeon 2.66GHz 15724
 7.45
 117,022
 SQLS
 12/31/06 1
IBM eSvr 325
 16/ 16/ 16 Opteron 2.0GHz 12216
 70.68
 863,410
 DB2
 11/08/03 8

TPC-H @100GB Price-Performance:

$/QphH = TPC-H $/Perf metric (smaller better)
QphH = TPC-H Composite Metric (bigger better)

System Socket/
Core/
Thread		 CPU GHz QphH $/
QphH
 Total $ DBMS
 Avail # of
Clust
Node
Sun Fire X4100
 30/ 60/ 60
 Opt 2.8 GHz 98,857.0
 2.65
 263,460.06
 Paraccel
 10/29/07 15
HP ML370G5
 1/4/4
 Xeon 2.66 GHz 4521
 4.30
 19,437
 SQLS
 7/31/07 1
Sun Fire X4100
 2/ 2/ 2
 Opt 3.0GHz 4132
 4.61
 19,057
 SybIQ
 6/23/06 1
Sun Fire X4100M2
 2/ 4/ 4 Opt 3.0 GHz 8587
 5.29
 45,467
 SybIQ
 5/25/07 1
Dell PE6950
 4/ 8/ 8 Opt 2.8GHz 14923
 5.66
 84,387
 SQLS
 12/04/06
 1
Dell PE6950
 4/ 8/ 8 Opt 2.8GHz 17180
 7.64
 131,204
 SQLS
 12/04/06 1
HP DL580 G4
 4/ 8/ 8 Xeon 3.4GHz 17120
 7.91
 135,384
 SQLS
 11/22/06 1

Benchmark Description

The TPC-H benchmark is a performance benchmark established by the Transaction Processing Council (TPC) to demonstrate Data Warehousing/Decision Support Systems (DSS). TPC-H measurements are produced for customers to evaluate the performance of various DSS systems. These queries and updates are executed against a standard database under controlled conditions. Performance projections and comparisons between different TPC-H Database sizes (100GB, 300GB, 1000GB, 3000GB and 10000GB) are not allowed by the TPC.

TPC-H is a data warehousing-oriented, non-industry-specific benchmark that consists of a large number of complex queries typical of decision support applications. It also includes some insert and delete activity that is intended to simulate loading and purging data from a warehouse. TPC-H measures the combined performance of a particular database manager on a specific computer system.

The main performance metric reported by TPC-H is called the TPC-H Composite Query-per-Hour Performance Metric (QphH@SF, where SF is the number of GB of raw data, referred to as the scale factor). QphH@SF is intended to summarize the ability of the system to process queries in both single and multi user modes. The benchmark requires reporting of price/performance, which is the ratio of QphH to total HW/SW cost plus 3 years maintenance. A secondary metric is the storage efficiency, which is the ratio of total configured disk space in GB to the scale factor.

Disclosure Statement:

TPC-H @100GB Sun Fire X4100 cluster 98,857.0 QphH@100GB, $2.65/QphH@100GB, avail 10/29/07; TPC-H, QphH, $/QphH tm of Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). More info http://www.tpc.org.

See Also:

TPC-H Scale Factor 100 (SF100 - 100GB) benchmark.
Audited Results

Database Size: 100 GB (Scale Factor 100)

TPC-H Composite: 98,857 QphH@100GB

$/perf: $2.65 / QphH@100GB

Available Oct 29, 2007
# of Systems: 15 x Sun Fire X4100
each X4100:
16GB memory each,
2 x 146GB (10k RPM) internal SAS each
Total # Procs: 30
Total # Cores: 60
Total # Threads: 60
Processor/GHz of Server: Opteron/2.8 GHz Dual-core
Storage: 4079 Gigabytes of disk
Database: Paraccel Analystic Database
Operating System: RedHat Enterprise Linux 4.4
Total 3 year Cost: $263,460.06
Other Performance Metrics

TPC-H Power: 70,827.4

TPC-H Throughput: 137,979.1

Database Load Time  10 minutes 42 seconds

Storage Ratio: 40.08

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Posted at 03:18PM Oct 30, 2007 by BM Seer in Benchmarks
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Another Sun Fire X4500 World Record Price/Perf (codename: "Thumper")

Wednesday Oct 17, 2007

The Sun Fire X4500 system running Solaris 10 and Sybase IQ 12.6 achieved a new TPC-H Price/Performance World Record of $8.11 USD $/QphH@1000GB. (Sun Fire X4500 was code-named "Thumper")

The single Sun Fire X4500 beat the previous best Price/Performance result, the HP DL585 G2 16%, and is the only 2-socket submission at 1000GB

The total storage in this Sun configuration was 11.2TB and it still allowed it to set the price/performance record on this 1TB Benchmarks (1TB ~= SF1000 = 1000GB). Lowest total cost of ownership ($45,439) of ANY submission at 1000GB and less than 1/3rd of the cost of the HP DL585 G2 total configuration.

The TPC-H result demonstrates the Sun Fire X4500 capabilities as a database machine. Each node of the X4500 cluster delivered 1.5 GB/sec of real IO throughput for a total of 1.5 GB/sec.

The TPC-H result demonstrates the effectiveness of Solaris 10 running Sybase IQ and results on the Opteron processors. Another "warehouse in a box" result from Sun. To date, Sun is the only vendor to be able to produce "in the box" TPC-H results of any kind.

TPC-H @1000GB Performance Chart (to be added, sorry it is very late right now)

QphH = the Composite Metric (bigger is better)
$/QphH = the Price/Performance metric (smaller is better)
QppH = the Power Numerical Quantity
QthH = the Throughput Numerical Quantity
 

System Sockets/
Cores/
Threads		 CPU Type GHz QphH Price/
QphH
 Price
in
currency
 DBMS
 Available Disk
Data
Ratio
Sun Fire X4500
 2/4/4
 Opteron
 2.8
 5604
 8.11
 45,439 $US
 SybIQ
  10/15/07 11.2
HP DL585 G2
 4/8/8
 Opteron
 2.8
 14773
 9.73
 143,736 $US
 SQLS
  04/25/07 7.8
Bull 3045
 4/8/16 Itanium
 1.6
 12087
 12.56
 151,870 $US
 SQLS
 03/06/07
  5.7
HP DL585 G1
 4/4/4 Opteron
 2.4
 10493
 13.85
 145,264 $US
 SQLS
 03/02/06
  6.4
Bull 5651
 16/16/16 Itanium
 1.6
 17060
 25.48
 434,553 $US
 SQLS
 05/08/06
  9.3
Sun Fire V490
 4/8/8 US-IV+
 1.5
 4368
 31.17
 136,121 $US
 SybIQ
 01/05/06
  2.7
Details of the Sun X4500 test

Complete benchmark results may be found at the TPC benchmark website http://www.tpc.org.

Benchmark Description

The TPC-H benchmark is a performance benchmark established by the Transaction Processing Council (TPC) to demonstrate Data Warehousing/Decision Support Systems (DSS). TPC-H measurements are produced for customers to evaluate the performance of various DSS systems. These queries and updates are executed against a standard database under controlled conditions. Performance projections and comparisons between different TPC-H Database sizes (100GB, 300GB, 1000GB, 3000GB and 10000GB) are not allowed by the TPC.

TPC-H is a data warehousing-oriented, non-industry-specific benchmark that consists of a large number of complex queries typical of decision support applications. It also includes some insert and delete activity that is intended to simulate loading and purging data from a warehouse. TPC-H measures the combined performance of a particular database manager on a specific computer system.

The main performance metric reported by TPC-H is called the TPC-H Composite Query-per-Hour Performance Metric (QphH@SF, where SF is the number of GB of raw data, referred to as the scale factor). QphH@SF is intended to summarize the ability of the system to process queries in both single and multi user modes. The benchmark requires reporting of price/performance, which is the ratio of QphH to total HW/SW cost plus 3 years maintenance. A secondary metric is the storage efficiency, which is the ratio of total configured disk space in GB to the scale factor.

Disclosure Statement:

Sun Fire X4500 5,604.9 QphH@1000GB, $8.11 USD $/QphH@1000GB, avail 10/15/07; HP DL585 G2, 14,773 QphH@1000GB, $9.73 USD $/QphH@1000GB, avail 4/25/07; TPC-H, QphH, $/QphH tm of Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). More info www.tpc.org.

Results Summary SF1000 (SF1000 = 1000GB) benchmark

  • Audited Results
    		•
  • Database Size:
    		•  1000 GB (Scale Factor 1000)
  • TPC-H Composite:
    		•  5,604.9 QphH@1000GB
  • Price/performance:
    		•  $8.11 USD $/QphH@1000GB
  • Available:
    		•  October 15, 2007
  • Number of Systems:
    		•  one Sun Fire X4500
  • Total Number Processors:
    		•  2
  • Processor/MHz of Server:
    		•  AMD Dual Core Opteron Model 290 2.8 GHz
  • Storage:
    		•  11.18 Terabytes of disk
  • Database:
    		•  Sybase IQ 12.6
  • Operating System:
    		•  Solaris 10
  • Total 3 year Cost:
    		•  $45,439.50 USD
  • Other Performance Metrics
    		•
  • TPC-H Power:
    		•  6,446.1
  • TPC-H Throughput:
    		•  4,873.5
  • Database Load Time:
    		•  10 hours 5 minutes

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    Posted at 04:46PM Oct 17, 2007 by BM Seer in Benchmarks
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    Sun Fire X4500 Cluster World Record Price/Perf (codename: "Thumper")

    Wednesday Oct 17, 2007

    The 10-node Sun Fire X4500 cluster running Solaris 10 and IBM DB2 9.1 achieved a new TPC-H Price/Performance World Record of $29.39 USD $/QphH@3000GB. (Sun Fire X4500 was code-named "Thumper")

    The Sun Fire X4500 cluster beat the previous best Price/Performance result, the IBM xSeries 346 cluster by 9%.

    The total storage in this Sun configuration was 218TB and it still allowed it to set the price/performance record on this 3TB Benchmarks (3TB ~= SF3000 = 3000GB).

    With this result, Sun systems running Solaris 10 now hold 2 of the top 4 price/performance results on the TPC-H@3000GB benchmark and 3 of the top 10.

    The TPC-H result demonstrates the Sun Fire X4500 capabilities as a database machine. Each node of the X4500 cluster delivered 1.5 GB/sec of real IO throughput for a total of 15 GB/sec.

    The TPC-H result demonstrates the effectiveness of Solaris 10 running DB2 and results on the Opteron processors.

    TPC-H @3000GB Performance Chart

    QphH = the Composite Metric (bigger is better)
    $/QphH = the Price/Performance metric (smaller is better)
    QppH = the Power Numerical Quantity
    QthH = the Throughput Numerical Quantity
     
    System Composite
    (QphH)    		 3 Year Total
    System Cost    		 $/perf
    $/QphH    		 Power
    (QppH)    		 Through-
    put (QthH)    		  
    Proc    		 Storage
    Amount
    Sun Fire X4500 38,672.4 $1,136,536 $29.39 51,320.0 29,141.8 20 218.3 TB
    IBM xSeries 346 54,465.9 $1,761,686 $32.34 90,854.7 32,651.4 64 25.6 TB
    HP Superdome 60,359.3 $1,967,970 $32.60 80,838.3 45,068.3 32 32.9 TB
    Sun Fire E25K 114,713.7 $4,207,126 $36.68 136,798.4 96,194.3 72 63.3 TB
    HP Proliant BL25p 110,576.5 $4,179,238 $37.80 116,379.3 105,063.0 64 69.6 TB
    Unisys ES7000/one 30,013.4 $1,135,354 $37.83 38,395.9 23,460.9 16 27.8 TB
    HP rx8640 37,813.7 $1,433,521 $37.92 51,160.6 27,948.8 16 22.6 TB
    Unisys ES7000 Orion 26,246.1 $1,169,880 $44.58 33,415.8 20,614.7 32 23.8 TB
    IBM p595 100,512.3 $5,358,874 $53.32 132,598.2 76,190.5 64 37.7 TB
    Sun Fire E25K 105,430.9 $5,784,902 $54.87 121,805.8 91,257.4 72 94.8 TB
    HP Superdome 71,847.8 $4,008,065 $55.79 92,335.6 55,905.9 64 40.6 TB


    System  
    Proc    		  
    cluster    		 CPU
    MHz    		 Type Operating System Database RDBMS+HW
    Available
    Sun Fire X4500 20 Y 2600 AMD Opteron
    285    		 Solaris 10 DB2 9.1 10/12/2007
    IBM xSeries 346 64 Y 3600 Intel Xeon Suse Linux DB2 UDB 8.2 08/15/2005
    HP Integrity
    Superdome    		 32 N 1600 Itanium2 Windows 2003 Microsoft SQL
    Server    		 05/21/2007
    Sun Fire E25K 72 N 1800 UltraSPARC IV+ Solaris 10 Oracle 10g 04/09/2007
    HP ProLiant BL25p 64 Y 2600 AMD Opteron 285 Red Hat Enter. Linux 4 Oracle 10g 06/08/2006
    Unisys ES7000/one 16 N 1600 Itanium2 Windows 2003 Microsoft SQL
    Server    		 09/08/2006
    HP rx8640 16 N 1600 Itanium2 Windows 2003 Oracle 10g 05/14/2007
    Unisys ES7000 Orion 32 N 1600 Itanium2 Windows 2003 Microsoft SQL
    Server    		 05/05/2006
    IBM p595 64 N 1900 POWER 5 AIX 5L V5.3 Oracle 10g 03/01/2006
    Sun Fire E25K 72 N 1500 UltraSPARC IV+ Solaris 10 Oracle 10g 01/27/2006
    HP Superdome 64 N 1600 Itanium2 HP-UX 11.i V2 Oracle 10g 01/18/2006

    Complete benchmark results may be found at the TPC benchmark website http://www.tpc.org.

    Benchmark Description

    The TPC-H benchmark is a performance benchmark established by the Transaction Processing Council (TPC) to demonstrate Data Warehousing/Decision Support Systems (DSS). TPC-H measurements are produced for customers to evaluate the performance of various DSS systems. These queries and updates are executed against a standard database under controlled conditions. Performance projections and comparisons between different TPC-H Database sizes (100GB, 300GB, 1000GB, 3000GB and 10000GB) are not allowed by the TPC.

    TPC-H is a data warehousing-oriented, non-industry-specific benchmark that consists of a large number of complex queries typical of decision support applications. It also includes some insert and delete activity that is intended to simulate loading and purging data from a warehouse. TPC-H measures the combined performance of a particular database manager on a specific computer system.

    The main performance metric reported by TPC-H is called the TPC-H Composite Query-per-Hour Performance Metric (QphH@SF, where SF is the number of GB of raw data, referred to as the scale factor). QphH@SF is intended to summarize the ability of the system to process queries in both single and multi user modes. The benchmark requires reporting of price/performance, which is the ratio of QphH to total HW/SW cost plus 3 years maintenance. A secondary metric is the storage efficiency, which is the ratio of total configured disk space in GB to the scale factor.

    Disclosure Statement:

    Sun Fire X4500 cluster 38,672.4 QphH@3000GB, $29.39 USD $/QphH@3000GB, avail 10/12/07; IBM eServer xSeries 346 cluster 54,465.9 QphH@3000GB, 32.34 USD $/QphH@3000GB, avail 8/15/05. TPC-H, QphH, $/QphH tm of Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). More info www.tpc.org.

    Results Summary SF3000 (SF3000 = 3000GB) benchmark

  • Audited Results
    		•
  • Database Size:
    		•  3000 GB (Scale Factor 3000)
  • TPC-H Composite:
    		•  38,672.4 QphH@3000GB
  • Price/performance:
    		•  $29.39 USD $/QphH@3000GB
  • Available:
    		•  October 12, 2007
  • Number of Systems:
    		•  10 Sun Fire X4500
  • Total Number Processors:
    		•  20
  • Processor/MHz of Server:
    		•  AMD Dual Core Opteron Model 285 2.6 GHz
  • Storage:
    		•  218.3 Terabytes of disk
  • Database:
    		•  DB2 Release 9.1
  • Operating System:
    		•  Solaris 10
  • Total 3 year Cost:
    		•  $1,136,536 USD
  • Other Performance Metrics
    		•
  • TPC-H Power:
    		•  51,320.0
  • TPC-H Throughput:
    		•  29,141.8
  • Database Load Time:
    		•  3 hours 39 minutes

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    Posted at 08:00AM Oct 17, 2007 by BM Seer in Benchmarks
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    Record SPECapc Unigraphics UGS-NX3 MCAD Benchmark Sun Ultra 40 M2

    Thursday Jun 21, 2007

    Record SPECapc Unigraphics UGS-NX3 MCAD Benchmark Sun Ultra 40 M2

    The Sun Ultra 40 M2 (dual nVidia Quadro FX 5600s SLI mode & 3.0 GHz dual-core Opteron 2222 SE) sets a new world record running the SPEC APC UGS-NX3 graphics oriented MCAD benchmark beating all desktop platforms, including the the Woodcrest and Intel Core2 "Extreme Processor" X6800 cpu's.

    In dual framebuffer SLI mode the Ultra 40 M2 with 3.0 GHz 2222 SE dual core Opteron processors outperforms a Dell 690 (3.0 GHz Woodcrest) by 7% overall.

    SPECapc Unigraphics NX 3 Benchmark(Larger numbers indicate greater speed)

    System Overall
    Composite    		 CPU
    Composite    		 File I/0
    Composite    		 Graphics
    Composite
    Sun Ultra 40 M2
    2x3.0GHz Opteron 2222SE
    2x FX 5600 (SLI)     		9.61 4.47 2.93 20.95
    Dell Precision 690
    2x3.0GHz Woodcrest
    2x FX 4600 (SLI)     		8.98 3.52 3.06 27.95
    Sun Ultra 40 M2
    2.8GHz Opteron 2220SE
    2x FX 5500 (SLI)     		7.19 3.08 3.00 16.85
    Dell Precision 690
    3.0GHz Woodcrest
    2x FX 4500 (SLI)     		6.30 3.25 1.64 12.29
    Current posted results at the SPEC website for the SPEC APC UGS-NX3 benchmark: http://www.spec.org/gpc/apc.data/specapc_nx3_summary.html

    Benchmark Description

    The SPEC APC MCAD benchmarks consist of tasks representative of what a designer would do in a typical session. This consists of "Graphics", "CPU", and "I/O" activities. A subscore is given for each of these subcategories as well as the overall score. The benchmark results shown here pertain to the SPEC APC UGS-NX3 benchmark. The MCAD application Unigraphics was used. This is a prominent system used by major engineering organizations worldwide.

    The SPEC APC MCAD benchmark test suite for UGS-NX3 was developed under the auspices of the SPEC APC Committee. Results for a variety of current desktop platforms from various hardware vendors are shown at the SPEC APC website.

    The characteristics of this MCAD application benchmark are very similar to other types of MCAD application benchmarks in that it consists of several groups of tasks each group involving different types of activity: graphics intensive, cpu intensive, and I/O intensive.

    The benchmark scoring will improve with the clock rate of the processor. The cpu intensive operations are sufficiently large that faster dimms will definitely provide some benefit. The graphics operations are intensive enough that using a better framebuffer will also contribute to higher performance. In fact using a second framebuffer in nVidia SLI mode will also improve performance by providing up to double the graphics performance component. The models are large enough and the I/O big enough that using multiple striped disks to store the assemblies and parts as well as writing plot and other types of database and interface files will also improve performance .

    Unigraphics is one of the prominent top 5 MCAD sytems used extensively by all sorts of diverse engineering organizations worldwide. There is a very big and broad market for the desktop platform that exhibits the leading price/performance with this code.

    Disclosure Statement:

    SPEC reg tm, SPECapc server mark of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Dell Precision 690,2xFX4600,overall composite 8.98; Sun Ultra 40 M2,2xFX5500,overall composite 7.19; Dell Precision 690,2xFX4500,overall composite 6.30. Sun Ultra 40 M2, 2xFX 5600, overall composite 9.61. Results from http://www.spec.org/gpc/apc.data/specapc_nx3_summary.html as of June 20, 2007.

    Results
    Dual
    FX 5600    		 Dual
    FX 5500
    Overall Composite: 9.61 7.19
    CPU Composite: 4.47 3.08
    File I/O Composite: 2.93 3.00
    Graphics Composite: 20.95 16.85
    Reference Date: 06/08/07 11/10/06
    System: Sun Ultra U40 M2 Sun Ultra U40 M2
    Processor/GHz: Opteron 2222SE/3.0 Opteron 2220SE/2.8

    System Configuration

    Hardware Configuration:

    Sun Ultra 40 M2

      2-socket 2x3.0 GHz dual core Opteron 2222 SE processors
      2x4x1 GB DDR2 667 MHz dimms
      2x nVidia Quadro FX 5600 (SLI)

    Sun Ultra 40 M2

      2-socket 2x2.8 GHz dual core Opteron 2200 processors
      2x4x1 GB DDR2 667 MHz dimms
      2x nVidia Quadro FX 5500 (SLI)
    Software Configuration:

    64-bit Windows XP Pro SP 1

    Unigraphics NX 3 (EDS-PLM Solutions)

    SPEC APC UGS-NX3 Benchmark Test Suite

    nVidia Quadro driver for Win XP: 160.02

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    Posted at 06:07AM Jun 21, 2007 by BM Seer in IBM Follies
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    Sun Fire X2200 M2 running Fluent CFD Beats Woodcrest & Clovertown

    Friday Mar 30, 2007

    The Sun Fire X2200 M2 server beats Woodcrest on large CFD models. The X2200 M2 Cluster beats all currently posted Opteron cluster results (dual core HP XC4000 2.2GHz, HP DL145 G2 2.2GHz, HP XW9300 2.4GHz, and HP DL585 2.6GHz) for all "cpu" levels and for all test cases. All clusters had the high performance Infiniband interconnects.

    The X2200 M2 beats the IBM X3650 2.66GHz quad core Clovertown across the board at all cpu levels and for all test cases.

    Tests were run on the official version of Fluent (lnxamd64 V6.3.26 build). The Sun Opteron server numbers were generated under 64-bit SUSE SLES 9 SP 3. Sun many customers that use Solaris, Linux, and windows so we show benchmarks on all of these.

    Although the X2200 M2 cluster has the best performance on the larger and more complex tests, "FL5L3". It is most closely representative of actual customer benchmarks (requires over 9GB of memory, best run using several cpu's). FL5L3 simulates turbulent flow through a transition duct.

    Note that the X2200 M2 cluster results shown in following table are consistently better than those obtained on the two Woodcrest cluster systems at the same "cpu" levels and for all indicated "cpu" levels (4 to 32).

    The efficiency of the Sun X2200 M2 cluster is superb at well above 90% up to 32 cores. This essentially perfect scalability is contrasted with the Woodcrest clusters where scalability has dropped off and efficiency is below 70% at and above 4 cores.

    Scaling Performance : Results in "Ratings" (# runs/day, bigger is better)

    System 4 Cores 8 Cores 16 Cores 32 Cores
    Sun X2200 M2
    2.8GHz Operton    		 89.9 174.4 341.5 664.4
    HP BL460C
    3.0GHz Woodcrest    		 80.3 155.4 299.0 576.0
    HP DL140
    3.0GHz Woodcrest    		 N/A 160.7 320.5 620.1
    Bull NovaScale
    3.0GHz Woodcrest    		 78.9 157.8 313.2 619.0

    Fluent Performance : Results in "Ratings" (# runs/day, bigger is better)

    System Interconnect/MPI cores FL5L1 FL5L2 FL5L3
    X2200 2.8GHz DC 2220 SLES 9 SP 3 IB(V)/HP-MPI 8 1219.5 952.1 174.4
    X2100 3.0GHz SC 156 SLES 9 SP3 IB(V)/MVAPICH 8 1148.2 1063.4 184.6
    HPDL140 3.0GHz DC WC EM64T Linux IB/HP-MPI 8 1378.0 915.0 160.7
    Bull Nova 3.0 GHz DC WC EM64T RHEL4 IB 8 1323.6 884.1 157.8
    HP BL460C 3.0GHz WC EM64T WinCCS IB(V) 8 1289.6 881.6 155.4
    Intel White 3.0GHz WC EM64T DC RHAS4 IB(Mellanox) 8 --- 828.0 137.8
    Tyan Typh. 630 2.3GHz WC SLES 10 GbE 8 1011.7 692.4 122.7
    Tyan Typh. 630 2.3GHz WC WinCCS GbE 8 981.8 635.3 ---
    HPDL140 3.6GHz EM64T WINCCS IB 8 970.8 675.0 120.0
    HPDL585 2.6GHz DC 152 RHEL4 IB(V)/HP-MPI 8 966.2 723.2 119.2
    HPXC4000 2.2GHz DC 148 Linux IB(V)/HP-MPI 8 951.0 680.4 102.7
    HPDL145 G2 Opteron 2.2GHz DC WinCCS IB(V) 8 847.1 654.5 119.2
    IBMX3650 2.66GHz 4C Clovert. EM64T RHEL4 ? 8 953.6 551.2 93.3

    Benchmark Description

    Nine industrial CFD applications ranging in size from 32,000 to 10,000,000 cells have been selected to demonstrate the performance of FLUENT on a variety of hardware platforms. The performance of a CFD code will depend on several factors including size and topology of the mesh, physical models, numerics and parallelization, compilers and optimization, in addition to performance characteristics of the hardware where the simulation is performed. The problems selected represent a range of simulations typical of those which might be found in industry. The principal objective of this benchmark suite is to provide comprehensive and fair comparative information of the performance of FLUENT on available hardware platforms.

    System Configuration

    Hardware Configuration:

      Sun Fire X2200 M2
      2-socket 2x2.8 GHz dual core Opteron 2220 processors
      4x1GB + 4x2GB (12GB) DDR2 667 MHz dimms
      IB(Voltaire)/PCI-Express (interconnect)

    Software Configuration:

      64-bit SuSE SLES 9 SP 3
      Fluent V6.3.26
      Voltaire Infiniband Software Stack: 3.5.5_16-S2sles9.k2.6.5_7.244_smp.x86_64
      Message Passing Interface: HP-MPI V hpmpi-2.02.05.00-20061003r.x86_64

    See Also

    Current V6.2(.16) results at:
    http://www.fluent.com/software/fluent/fl5bench/flbench_6.3/fullres.htm

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    Posted at 11:04AM Mar 30, 2007 by BM Seer in Benchmarks
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    EDA vendors seeing Solaris benefits

    Monday Jan 29, 2007

    As we've shown in previous blog entries, lots of Solaris benefits in terms of robustness and performance, etc.

    We're seeing more and more vendors aligning around Solaris. For example, in the EDA market there was last years announcement by Synopsys to support VCS on Solaris 10 (on both X64 and SPARC). Press release: http://www.synopsys.com/news/announce/press2005/sun_snps_vcs_pr.html

    Also Cadence is showing broad support across its product lines for Solaris 10 for both SPARC and Opteron. Press release: http://www.cadence.com/company/newsroom/press_releases/pr.aspx?xml=010306_sun

    more coming...

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    Posted at 03:58PM Jan 29, 2007 by BM Seer in Misc
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    SPARC & Opteron perfect storm for SPECjAppServer World Record

    Thursday Jan 18, 2007

    The Sun Blade 8000 & Sun Fire E6900 a perfect mix for SPECjAppServer2004 World Record Performance.

    The Sun Blade 8000 Modular Server, consisting of ten Sun Blade X8420 Server Modules as the application tier (4x Opteron 8220 DC 2.8GHz) and a Sun Fire E6900 for the Database tier (24x UltraSPARC IV+ 1.8 GHz) delivered a WORLD RECORD result of 7174.56 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard.

    The ten Sun Blade X8420 Server Modules demonstrated 5% better performance over the best HP result of 6812.79 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard which used 11 rx3600 servers and a Superdome for the database with 32 dual-core Itanium2.

    This result shows the Sun Blade 8000 Modular Server with 64% better performance over the IBM result of 4368.02 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard using 20 IBM XSeries BladeCenter HS20 blades for the application servers and IBM p5 570 for the database.

    This result shows the Sun Blade X8420 Server Module with 8% improved scaling over the Sun Blade X8400 Server Module.

    This benchmark result demonstrates that the Sun Blade X8420 and Sun Fire E6900 running the Solaris 10 Operating system can support over 43,000 concurrent users accessing J2EE applications.

    Result highlights the performance benefits of the latest BEA Weblogic Server release 9.2 on Sun Blade X8420 Server Modules.

    This benchmark used IBM DB2 8.2.6 on the Sun Fire E6900 equipped with 24 UltraSPARC IV+ to deliver this world record result.

    Competitive Landscape

    SPECjAppServer2004 Performance Chart (bigger is better) as of 01/17/2007

      SPECjAppServer2004
    JOPS@Standard    		 J2EE Server DB Server
    Sun 7174.56 1x Sun Blade 8000 (10 x X8420)
    80 cores, 40 chips @ 2.8 GHz AMD 8220
    BEA WebLogic 9.2    		 1 x Sun Fire E6900
    48 cores, 24 chips @ 1.8 GHz US-IV+
    IBM DB2 8.2.6
    HP 6812.79 11 x HP rx3600
    44 cores, 22 chips @ 1.6 GHz Itanium 2
    Oracle OC4J 10.1.3.2    		 1 x 9000 Superdome
    64 cores, 32 chips @ 1.6 GHz Itanium 2
    Oracle 10g 10.2.0.2
    Sun 6662.98 1x Sun Blade (10 x X8400)
    80 cores, 40 chips @ 2.6 GHz AMD 880
    BEA WebLogic 9.2    		 1 x Sun Fire E6900
    48 cores, 24 chips @ 1.5 GHz US-IV+
    IBM DB2 8.2.5
    HP 4915.49 4 x HP rx6600
    32 cores, 16 chips @ 1.6 GHz Itanium 2
    BEA WebLogic 9.1    		 1 x 9000 Superdome
    64 cores, 32 chips @ 1.6 GHz Itanium 2
    Oracle 10g 10.2.0.2
    IBM 4368.02 2x IBM HS20
    40 cores, 40 chips @ 3.6 GHz Intel Xeon
    WebSphere 6.1    		 1 x IBM p570
    16 cores, 8 chips @ 1.9 GHz IBM Power5
    IBM DB2 v9.1
    Sun 4098.77 7 x Sun Fire T2000
    56 cores, 7 chips @ 1.2 GHz US-T1
    BEA WebLogic 9.0    		 1 x Sun Fire E6900
    40 cores, 20 chips @ 1.5 GHz US-IV+
    Oracle 10g 10.1.0.4

    SPECjAppServer2004 Results Page

    Benchmark Description

    SPECjAppServer2004 (Java Application Server) is a multi-tier benchmark for measuring the performance of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology-based application servers. SPECjAppServer2004 is an end-to-end application which exercises all major J2EE technologies implemented by compliant application servers as follows:

    • The web container, including servlets and JSPs
    • The EJB container
    • EJB2.0 Container Managed Persistence
    • JMS and Message Driven Beans
    • Transaction management
    • Database connectivity

    Moreover, SPECjAppServer2004 also heavily exercises all parts of the underlying infrastructure that make up the application environment, including hardware, JVM software, database software, JDBC drivers, and the system network.

    The primary metric of the SPECjAppServer2004 benchmark is jAppServer Operations Per Second (JOPS) which is calculated by adding the metrics of the Dealership Management Application in the Dealer Domain and the Manufacturing Application in the Manufacturing Domain. There is NO price/performance metric in this benchmark.

    Disclosure Statement:

    SPECjAppServer2004 10 Sun Fire X8420 (80 cores, 40 chips) and 1 Sun Fire E6900 (48 cores, 24 chips) 7174.56 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard.
    SPECjAppServer2004 11 HP rx3600 (44 cores, 22 chips) and HP 9000 Superdome (64 cores, 32 chips) 6812.79 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard.
    SPECjAppServer2004 20 IBM xSeries BladeCenter HS20 (40 cores, 40 chips) and IBM eServer p5 570 (16 cores, 8 chips) 4368.02 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard.
    SPEC, SPECjAppServer reg tm of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation.
    Results from http://www.spec.org. as of 01/17/2007.

      Certified Results 7174.56 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard
      Reference Date: Jan 17, 2007
      Systems: 10 x Sun Blade X8420, 32GB
      1 x Sun Fire E6900, 192GB, 4 x Sun StorageTek SE3510 FC Array
      Total Number Processors: 40, 24
      Processor/GHz of Server: AMD Opteron 8220 2.8 GHz
      UltraSPARC IV+ 1.8 GHz
      Operating System: Solaris 10 6/06
      Software: BEA WebLogic 9.2 Advantage Edition
      IBM DB2 8.2.6 Enterprise Editon
      JVM: J2SE 5.0 update 10

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    Posted at 10:21AM Jan 18, 2007 by BM Seer in Benchmarks
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    Yet another SPEC OMP2001 World Record

    Monday Jan 08, 2007

    The Sun Fire X4600 M2 delivers the best performance on the SPEC OMPM2001 benchmark suite of all systems running 8-threads results. The Sun Fire X4600 M2 topped the IBM System p5 550 (2.1 GHz, 4 CPU) result by 6%. The Sun Fire X4600 M2 server in 4-socket configuration using dual-core AMD Opteron Model 8220SE processors, produced best SPECompM2001 result of 21,167. The results show that the combination of Solaris 10 using Sun Studio 11 is unmatched by the competition for assisting users in writing parallel code.

    For more public info on benchmarks, please see the sun.com X4600 Benchmark Page

    SPEComp2001 Performance Chart (bigger is better, ordered by peak)
    Result Cores Chips Thrds System
    Peak Base
    21167 20409 8 4 8 Sun Fire X4600 M2, Opteron 8220SE, 2.8GHz
    20319 19708 8 8 8 Sun Fire X4600, Opteron 856, 3.0GHz
    19983 15355 4 2 8 IBM System p5 550 (2100 MHz, 4 CPU)
    19653 18949 8 4 8 Sun Blade X8400, Opteron 885, 2.6GHz

    Benchmark Description

    The SPEC OMPM2001 Benchmark Suite was released in June 2001 and tests HPC performance using OpenMP for parallelism. 11 programs (3 in C and 8 in Fortran) parallelized using OpenMP API

    Goals of suite:

  • Targeted to mid-range (4-32 processor) parallel systems
  • Run rules, tools and reporting similar to SPEC CPU2000
  • Programs representative of HPC and Scientific Applications

    • Results Summary

      Result
      X4600 M2 8-threads: 21167 SPECompM2001
      Reference Date: Jan 05, 2007
      System: Sun Fire X4600M2
      Processors/GHz: Four Opteron 8220SE, 2.8 GHz
      Operating System: Solaris 10
      Compiler: Sun Studio 11
    • Sun Fire X4600M2
    • 16GB memory (16x1GB per chip), DDR667
    • Solaris 10

    Example Disclosure Statement:

    SPEC, SPEComp reg tm of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Results from www.SPEC.org as of Jan 05, 2007, Sun result submitted to SPEC. Sun Fire X4600 M2 (8 cores, 4 chips, 8 threads), 21,167 SPECompM2001. IBM System p5 550 (4 cores, 2 chips, 8 threads), 19,983 SPECompM2001. Sockets refers to chips.

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    Posted at 01:43PM Jan 08, 2007 by BM Seer in Benchmarks
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    SPEComp now SPECfp_rate2000, more Sun X64

    Monday Jan 08, 2007

    The Sun Fire X4600 M2 delivered world record performance on the floating-point throughput suite of SPEC CPU2000, for all 4-socket x86 systems. The Sun Fire X4600 M2 beats the IBM p550Q by 6%. Sun delivered a SPECfp_rate2000 score of 214 using Solaris 10 and Sun Studio 11 compilers.

    For more see the sun.com X4600 Benchmark Page

    SPEC SPECfp_rate2000 Performance Chart (bigger is better)
    System Chips Cores Peak Base
    Sun Fire X4600 M2 (2.8GHz Opteron 2220SE) 4 8 214 184
    IBM System p5 550Q (1650 MHz, 8 CPU) 4 8 202 189
    Sun Blade X8400 (2.6GHz Opteron 885) 4 8 182 167

    Benchmark Description

    SPEC CPU2000 consists of two suites of benchmarks which test integer and floating-point performance. Each suite has two different ways of measuring performance, Speed (often referred to as CPU) and Rate. Speed results are single threaded performance metrics; Rate results are user configurable from 1 to N jobs to put a load on the system and the number of jobs is reported as part of the benchmark report.

    Goals of suite: SPEC CPU2000 is designed to provide performance measurements that can be used to compare compute-intensive workloads on different computer systems.

    Results Summary

      Results
      X4600 M2 8-jobs: 214 SPECfp_rate2000
      Reference Date: Jan 05, 2007
      System: Sun Fire X4600 M2
      Total Number Processors: 4
      Processor/GHz of Server: AMD Opteron 8220SE, 2.8 GHz
      Operating System: Solaris 10 6/06
      Compiler: Sun Studio 11

    Disclosure Statement:

    SPEC, SPECfp reg tm of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Results from www.spec.org as of Jan 05, 2007. Sun Fire X4600 M2 (8 cores, 4 chips, Solaris 10), 214 SPECfp_rate2000. IBM System p5 550Q (1650 MHz, 8 CPU), 202 SPECfp_rate2000.

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    Posted at 09:43AM Jan 08, 2007 by BM Seer in Benchmarks
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    update: Solaris beating Linux Performance

    Wednesday Jan 03, 2007

    (Update with corrections of previous entry)

    Sun Fire X4100/X4200M2 4-thread 2-socket World Record, shows that Solaris 10 and Sun Studio 11 are faster than Opterons running Linux (31% faster than PGI and 8% faster than Pathscale compilers). The Sun Fire X4100/X4200M2 two-way dual-core server produced best SPECompM2001 result of 13222.

    Sun Solaris 10/Studio11 was 31% faster than Linux/PGI with AMD Tyan system using SuSE Linux SLES9 SP3 64-bit/PGI 6.2-4. The AMD Tyan even used faster CL4 DIMMs. Both results submitted Nov 2006. The Sun Fire X4100/X4200M2 also topped the IBM p5 520 POWER5+ 1.9GHz AIX5L V5.3 result by 61%.

    Solaris/Studio 11 is 8% faster than Linux SuSE SLES9 SP3 64bit using QLogic PathScale Compiler Suite v2.5.

    There is a growing body of favorable comparisons showing Solaris advantages over Linux on performance. Remember the previous BM Seer posting on Java performance.

    Even more examples of Solaris beating Linux coming soon.

    SPECompM2001 Results (bigger is better)
    SPECompM2001 Cores Chips Thrds System
    13222 4 2 4 Sun Fire X4100/X4200 M2, Opteron 2220SE, 2.8GHz
    12574 4 2 4 Sun Fire X2200 M2, Opteron 2218, 2.6GHz
    12172 4 2 4 AMD Tyan n6650w, Opteron 8220, 2.8GHz
    10085 4 2 4 AMD Tyan n6650w, Opteron 8220, 2.8GHz
    8174 2 1 4 IBM System p5 520 (1900 MHz, 2 CPU)

    Benchmark Description

    The SPEC OMPM2001 Benchmark Suite was released in June 2001 and tests HPC performance using OpenMP for parallelism. It consists of 11 programs (8 in Fortran and 3 in C) parallelized using OpenMP API.

    Goals of the benchmark:

  • Targeted to mid-range (4-32 processor) parallel systems
  • Run rules, tools and reporting similar to SPEC CPU2000
  • Programs representative of HPC and Scientific Applications

    • See Also:
    SPEC OMP2001 Page
    sun.com X4100 Benchmark Page
    sun.com X4200 Benchmark Page

    Disclosure Statement:

    SPEC, SPEComp reg tm of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Results from www.spec.org Results as of Jan 2, 2007. Sun Fire X4100/X4200 M2 (4 cores, 2 chips, 4 threads), 13,222 SPECompM2001. AMD Tyan n6650w (4 cores, 2 chips, 4 threads), 10,085 SPECompM2001 PGI compiler. AMD Tyan n6650w (4 cores, 2 chips, 4 threads), 12,172 SPECompM2001 Pathscale compiler. Sockets refers to chips.

    Results Summary

      X4100/X4200 M2 4-threads: 13222 SPECompM2001
      X2200 M2 4-threads: 12574 SPECompM2001
      Reference Date: Oct 16, 2006
      System: Sun Fire X4100/X4200M2 16GB memory (4x2GB per chip), DDR667
      Processors: two Opteron 2220SE, 2.8 GHz
      Operating System: Solaris 10
      Compiler: Sun Studio 11

    [3] Comments
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    Posted at 10:39AM Jan 03, 2007 by BM Seer in Benchmarks
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    Solaris again beating Linux on benchmark

    Wednesday Dec 20, 2006

    This entry has been updated, for the latest please go to:
    http://blogs.sun.com/bmseer/entry/update_solaris_beating_linux_performance.

    [2] Comments
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    Posted at 07:00AM Dec 20, 2006 by BM Seer in Benchmarks
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    Sun/s better $/perf than IBM's servers on IBM Websphere

    Friday Dec 15, 2006

    A Sun Fire T2000 (UltraSPARC-T1) delivered 616.22 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard running the Websphere Application Server 6.1. The T2000 delivers more 5.6x the per-socket performance of IBM's best Xeon result when running the Websphere App Server, for a 57% better software price/performance.

    For Websphere customers, a Sun Fire T2000 server delivers 69% more throughput than an IBM p5 550. This translates into a 2.8x better performance per Websphere license.

    When running IBM's own software, the T2000 outperforms a p5 505 by 77%, and with lower software license and maintenance costs.

    All published SPECjAppServer2004 results using IBM Websphere v6 as of 12/07/06. Detail at: http://www.spec.org/jAppServer2004/

    System: Brief description of hardware and software
    JOPS: SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard (bigger is better)
    PVUs: Total Websphere PVUs (1)
    Cost: Websphere License Cost (US$) (2)
    $/JOPS: Software $/JOPS (lower is better)
    Adv: T2000 Price/Performance Advantage

    System JOPS PVUs Cost $/JOPS Adv
    Sun Fire T2000
    1.2GHz UltraSPARC T1
    Websphere 6.1
    Solaris 10 6/06     		616.22 240 $36,000 $58.42 -
    IBM p5 505
    2.1GHz POWER5+
    Websphere 6.1
    AIX 5L V5.3    		 349.11 200 $30,000 $85.93 1.5x
    IBM OpenPower 720
    2x 1.65GHz POWER5
    Websphere 6.0
    SLES9    		 1334.96 800 $120,000 $89.89 1.5x
    20xIBM HS20
    2x 3.6GHz Xeon
    Websphere 6.1
    SLES9    		 4368.02 4000 $600,000 $137.36 2.4x
    8xIBM p5 550
    2x 1.9GHz POWER5+
    Websphere 6.0
    SLES9    		 2921.48 3200 $480,000 $164.30 2.8x
    5xIBM xSeries 365
    4x 3.0GHz Xeon
    Websphere 6.0
    SLES9    		 1343.47 2000 $300,000 $223.30 3.8x

    (1) PVUs. Processor value Units. This is the metric used to determine the number of licensed needed for Websphere and other IBM software products. 100 PVUs equates to 1 software license. For details, see IBM's PVU document.

    (2) As of 12/7/06, the US license cost of one PVU for Websphere Application Server (Network Deployment) is USD$150. Source: IBM online catalog.

    Benchmark Description

    SPECjAppServer2004 (Java Application Server) is a multi-tier benchmark for measuring the performance of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology-based application servers. SPECjAppServer2004 is an end-to-end application which exercises all major J2EE technologies implemented by compliant application servers as follows:

    • The web container, including servlets and JSPs
    • The EJB container
    • EJB2.0 Container Managed Persistence
    • JMS and Message Driven Beans
    • Transaction management
    • Database connectivity
    Moreover, SPECjAppServer2004 also heavily exercises all parts of the underlying infrastructure that make up the application environment, including hardware, JVM software, database software, JDBC drivers, and the system network. The primary metric of the SPECjAppServer2004 benchmark is jAppServer Operations Per Second (JOPS) which is calculated by adding the metrics of the Dealership Management Application in the Dealer Domain and the Manufacturing Application in the Manufacturing Domain. There is NO price/performance metric in this benchmark.

    Disclosure Statement:

    SPEC, SPECjAppServer reg tm of Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. Results from www.spec.org as of 12/07/2006. Sun Fire T2000 (8 cores, 1 chip) 616.22 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard. IBM p5 505 (2 cores, 1 chip) 349.11 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard. IBM p5 550 cluster (32 cores, 16 chips) 2921.48 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard. IBM xSeries BladeCenter HS20 cluster (40 cores, 40 chips) 4368.02 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard.

    Websphere pricing from IBM's PVU Document and the IBM online catalog.

    Results Summary

    Certified Results


    616.22 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard

    Reference Date:


    August 2, 2006

    Systems:


    1 x Sun Fire T2000 (application server) 32 GB
    1 x Sun Fire X4200 (database server) 16GB

    Total Number Processors:


    App Server: 1
    DB Server: 2

    Processor/GHz of Server:


    App Server: UltraSPARC T1 at 1.2GHz (8-core)
    DB Server: Dual-core Opteron 275 at 2.2GHz

    Operating System:


    App Server: Solaris 10 6/06
    DB Server: Solaris 10 1/06

    Software:


    WebSphere Application Server 6.1
    DB2 Universal Database 8.2.4 (64-bit)

    JVM:


    J2SE 5.0 update 6 (IBM build)

    see also:
    SPECjAppServer2004 Results Page
    Benchmark announcement on www.sun.com

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