On the heels of the ISV Sun T5440 performance announcements, we've released an impressive SAP benchmark on the Sun Fire X4600M2 system. This is the best 8 processor result1 in the business and shines in a number of interesting areas:
- Surpasses the HP DL 785 result using the same basic configuration (5800 users versus 5230)
- Uses SAP's bundled "no aquisition cost" MAX-DB (who needs those SQL Server or Oracle licenses?)
- Solaris 10 once again shows superior performance compared to Microsoft Windows Server 2003
- An apples-to-apples comparison? Not exactly. This result used the more difficult Unicode version of the benchmark versus the non-Unicode (2005) version
Expanding on the last very important point, as BM Seer and Heise Online Magazine [German original] have pointed out, the superior Sun benchmark result was achieved with the Unicode 6.0 version of the benchmark. According to SAP documentation, the Unicode version requires up to an estimated 30% more cpu to execute (as well as other greater resource requirements). This is like having a 160 lbs (72.5 kg) swimmer strap on another 50 pounds before a race and still finish first by a comfortable margin. I particularly liked the comments from to the Heise article. One reader complained that the unicode thing as an arcane point that no one would catch or care. The response to that was something like "hey, I'm blogging about it aren't I?" and "this is on purpose - Sun is an engineering company" (I'm paraphrasing).
Disclosure Statement:
1SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. For more details, see http://www.sap.com/benchmark. Two-tier SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark - Configurations:
Sun Fire X4600M2, 8 Proc. / 32 Cores / 32 Threads running SAP ERP 6.0 (Unicode) and MaxDB 7.6 on Solaris 10. Result 5,800 SD Benchmark users, 29,670 SAPS, certification number 2008061
HP ProLiant DL785, 8 Proc. / 32 Cores / 32 Threads running SAP ERP 6.0 and SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2003 EE. Result: 5,230 SD Benchmark users, 26,180 SAPS, certification number 2008026
