SGI Altix Trounces Competition as World's Most Powerful Enterprise Java Application Platform26 May 2006
Just as solutions from Silicon Graphics (OTC Bulletin Board: SGIDE) led the technical computing market throughout the past two decades, the latest SGI servers are proving unbeatable in a new marketplace: the enterprise.
With support from Intel and BEA Systems, SGI today announced that its SGI(R) Altix(R) server platform achieved world-record results on the SPECjbb2005 benchmark, an industry-standard measurement of Java*-based application performance. The results underscore the ability of the SGI Altix platform to process Java*-based business logic while scaling from small to large configurations and still maintaining its edge in price/performance.
For enterprises facing ever-increasing workloads in order processing and other transaction-oriented systems, the world-record performance of SGI Altix allows them to consolidate more functions on less hardware. The result is a lower cost of ownership, a more efficient use of precious IT real estate, and significantly improved application performance.
SGI Altix easily outperformed competing systems from Fujitsu Ltd., Sun Microsystems and others. The tested SGI(R) Altix(R) 3700 Bx2 server, powered by 128 Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2 processors and running the high-performance BEA JRockit(R) 5.0 Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which is optimized for Intel-based servers, generated 1,828,349 SPECjbb2005 bops(1) (business operations per second). The SPECjbb2005 results are posted on http://www.spec.org.
In addition to displaying linear scalability in tests of 32- and 64-processor systems(2), SGI Altix also excels in price/performance. Compared to the $5.8 million Fujitsu PRIMEPOWER system, the world-record SGI Altix costs just $2.41 / SPECjbb2005 bops versus Fujitsu's cost of $4.64/ SPECjbb2005 bops. The tested SunFire E25K system, priced at $4.1 million, is also more expensive than Altix: $3.52 / SPECjbb2005 bops. And the price/performance of mid-range Altix systems is nearly identical to that of the 128-processor configuration(3).
With Java*-based applications a fixture in most enterprises, there is a growing need for reliable, scalable servers in entry-level, mid-range and high-end configurations. At every level of the enterprise, SGI Altix allows organizations to extend their infrastructures without dramatically increasing the footprint of server resources. For instance:
-- Enterprises can rely on a single Altix server to support several business transaction engines or batch runs. As batch processing needs increase, entry-level and mid-range servers can scale up to meet demand.
-- Altix users can run from one to several JVM instances on a single system (the record Altix results were achieved with 64 instances of BEA JRockit 5.0), while enjoying the simplified administrative benefits of operating a single node running one instance of the Linux(R) OS.
-- Organizations can leverage the Altix system's flexible, high-throughput architecture to run both distributed applications and memory-intensive codes.
"SGI Altix is built around a high-performance architecture that translates directly into business benefits for a broad class of enterprise applications based on the Java Virtual Machine," said Scott Ellman, data management segment manager, SGI. "Altix features a large, globally addressable memory architecture that enables the fastest communication in a multi-threaded computational environment. As a result, Altix positively screams as a Java application platform when powered by Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2 processors and the BEA JRockit JVM -- all while providing the hands-down best value for the enterprise dollar."
"Enterprises are evaluating their server consolidation options, and the ability to scale up is essential to IT managers and architects," said Boyd Davis, general manager, server platforms group marketing, Intel. "As these exciting SPECjbb2005 results show, the Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2 processor-based SGI Altix server and BEA JRockit reliably and cost-effectively push Java* Virtual Machine performance to new heights."
"In test after test, JRockit has proven to be fast, stable and efficient," said Guy Churchward, General Manager of the Java Runtime Products Group at BEA Systems. "These latest SPECjbb2005 results offer proof positive that the industry's most robust JVM, paired with immensely powerful, high-bandwidth hardware like SGI Altix server based on Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2 processors, is ideally suited to help enterprises achieve new levels of reliability, scalability, manageability and simplicity."
Available as entry-level blades or clusters, mid-range systems or densely configured high-performance servers, Altix systems are built on SGI's unique shared-memory architecture, which allows even large databases to be held entirely in memory, enabling fast data access for optimal application performance.
The SPECjbb2005 benchmark's workload represents an order processing application for a wholesale supplier, and offers insight into the performance and scalability of mid-tier or back-end servers running enterprise Java applications. Complete SPECjbb2005 results are available at: http://www.spec.org/jbb2005/results/jbb2005.html
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SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc. (OTC: SGIDE), is a leader in high-performance computing. SGI helps customers solve their computing challenges, whether it's sharing images to aid in brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate, providing technologies for homeland security and defense, enabling the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, or helping enterprises manage large data. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at http://www.sgi.com.
NOTE: Silicon Graphics, SGI, Altix, the SGI cube and the SGI logo are registered trademarks, and The Source of Innovation and Discovery is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. Intel and Itanium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. JRockit is a registered trademark of BEA Systems, Inc. SPEC and the benchmark name SPECjbb2005 are trademarks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
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(1) Editor's Note: SPECjbb2005 competitive results for 128+ core systems accessed from http://www.spec.org on May 23, 2006.
SGI Altix 3700 Bx2 configuration: 128, 1.6GHz single-core Intel Itanium 2 CPUs, 512GB of main memory, 64 instances of BEA JRockit 5.0 JVM.
Scores achieved in SGI tests on March 24, 2006: 1828349 SPECjbb2005 bops
and 28568 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM.
SunFire E25K configuration: 72 dual-core 1.5GHz ULTRASPARC IV+ CPUs, 288GB of main memory, 36 instances of Java HotSpot 32-Bit Server VM on Solaris, version 1.5.0_06.
Scores achieved in Sun tests on Feb. 13, 2006: 1,164,995 SPECjbb2005 bops
and 32,361 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM.
Fujitsu Ltd. PrimePower2500 configuration: 128, 2.1GHz single-core SPARC64V CPUs, 512GB of main memory, 32 instances of Java HotSpot 32-Bit Server VM on Solaris, version 1.5.0_06.
Scores achieved in Fujitsu tests on March 14, 2006: 1,251,024 SPECjbb2005
bops and 39,095 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM.
(2) 32-core SGI Altix 3700 Bx2 configuration achieved 457,598 SPECjbb2005 bops and 28,500 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM, and the 64-core system delivered 913,848 SPECjbb2005 bops and 28,558 SPECjbb2005 bops/JVM.
(3) Price/performance based on publicly available information; results computed by dividing system price by overall SPECjbb2005 score. Fujitsu PRIMEPOWER 2500 and SunFire E25K system prices cited on Feb. 26, 2006 in Sun corporate statement available at: http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/bmseer?entry=fast_e25k_jbb2005_world_recor d 32-core SGI Altix system list priced at $1,097,338; 64-core SGI Altix system list priced at $2,200,903; 128-core SGI Altix system list priced at $4,401,805. US list prices provided by SGI.
Source: prnewswire
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