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News about SPARC systems and related companies

2002, June week 4

See also:- current SPARC news, earlier SPARC news, Events, SPARC manufacturers, SPARC systems, SPARC VARs - USA, SPARC VARs - UK
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Sun Microsystems Sun Fire 15k System Running Oracle9i Delivers World's Fastest TPC-H Benchmark

SANTA CLARA, CA - June 26, 2002 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced another record-breaking TPC-H benchmark. The benchmark was performed on a 72-processor 1050 MHz Sun Fire 15K system with 288GB of memory, running Solaris 9 OS and Oracle9i Database. The server also utilized 18 Sun StorEdge A5200 disk arrays. The system delivered 23,813.7 QphH@3000GB at a price performance of $215/QphH@3000GB, with a scheduled availability of October 30, 2002.

The versatile 72-way Sun Fire 15K server with 1050 MHz CPUs is rated by Sun at 6,400 Mainframe Equivalent MIPS, which surpasses the fastest IBM mainframe, while maintaining a lower price. ...Sun Microsystems profile

Editor's notes:- Sun claims these benchmark results are 26% better than Intel-based systems from HP and NCR.
Sun Fire 15k System Running Oracle9i Delivers World's Fastest TPC-H Benchmark

Sun and Oracle Target Entry Level Market

New IBM eServer Outperforms Sun Machine By 84%

Network Appliance Announces Support for Oracle9i™ Real Application Clusters Running on Linux

New I-Bus/Phoenix Appointments Consolidate European Operations

Performance Technologies Offers Industry's First PICMG® 2.16-Compliant Signaling Gateway Blade

Web I/O Acceleration Allows French TV Network TFI To Handle Unprecedented World Cup Web Traffic

Rave Computer to Publicize its Total Integrated Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Solution to the Government and Public Sector markets

DY 4 Systems and Force Computers Announce Fully Integrated Services Portfolio

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How Long Can Sun Stand the Heat in the Server Benchmark Wars?

July 1, 2002 - This summer the pressure from Sun's competitors will start to mount, as long as Sun is still saddled with its one year old vintage 900MHz processors (and low volume selected 1,050MHz variants). Although the processor benchmark wars have been a regular event throughout SPARC's 15 year history, Sun's economic woes last year caused it to slip behind its main competitors with an interim processor which was far below the expectations predicted by Moore's law. Although Sun has publicly stated that it continued investments into new chip designs, its economics are vastly different here to rival Intel, which despite the recession in the PC market, is planning around a market estimated to be as large as another one billion PCs during the next 6 years. That allows Intel to get a payback on interim clock speed products much earlier than Sun.

On July 1st, HP announced that their 64-way HP Superdome server with the newly announced PA-8700+ processor secured the world's best SPECjbb200 result submitted to date, scoring 614,538 Java applications per second and beating a 104-way Sun Starfire 15K. But more pressure on Sun will soon be coming from HP.

In June, HP (not known for its speed at writing operating system software) announced that it would assign to Red Hat the task of sourcing a Linux for HP servers and workstations based on the forthcoming Intel® Itanium® 2 processor. HP's claim to fame with this processor is that it co-developed with Intel, the Itanium instruction set architecture. That was part of a deal which involved HP dropping the ongoing development of its own PA based processors. However, it's fair to say that HP's processor chip developments in the past have probably scared its own accountants and shareholders more than they scared competitors like Sun. And the face saving "co-development" with Intel would have been more significant in technology terms, if HP had been tasked with the mission of choosing the color of the chips new package. Nevertheless, when the new Intel processor comes out, HP will be able to significantly outperform Sun in the benchmark stakes.

The threat from any Microsoft operating systems in the 64 bit server space are more muted... In November 2001, Dell and MigraTEC, Inc. announced a technology and services referral agreement that will aid Dell customers moving their mission-critical computing operations to the 64-bit Intel® Itanium computing platform. MigraTEC products automate many of the required tasks associated with moving applications from 32-bit to 64-bit platforms and from Solaris® and other Unix operating systems to Microsoft® Windows and Linux® . Although Sun's CEO, Scott McNealy publicly claims to disregard Dell as a competitor, he is in a minority of one in this regard. And Dell's moves have to be watched carefully. However, since Sun cut off Dell's future access to its own X86 based Solaris, the Texas based company will have to make do with other operating systems to take advantage of the new 64 bit Intel platforms.

Intel is not the only threat however. In June IBM announced an entry level 4 processor server, the eServer p630, designed to run Linux and the AIX 5L operating system that offers 84% greater performance than Sun's 900MHz SPARC based V480. IBM plans to introduce dynamic LPAR capability in the fourth quarter, enabling customers to divide the machine into up to four "virtual" servers. These systems, which can be as small as a single processor, can dynamically change in size to accommodate shifting workloads.

The IBM eServer p630 is the fastest four-way Web secure server, according to the rigorous SPECweb99_SSL benchmark. The SPECweb99_SSL measures a server's ability to support a given number of secure Web users while maintaining certain performance requirements. The p630 supported 1,050 simultaneous connections, far outpacing the 568 simultaneous connections achieved by the four-way Sun V480.

Where Does this Leave Sun?

Sun sales people will have to take a certain amount of flack from competitive benchmarks which will show up Sun's weaknesses in an unfavorable light. In the short term they can counter with the rejoinder that the competitor's products are "new" and "unproven" whereas Sun's boxes have been shipping in volume for some time. By the fall however, Sun will only retain credibility by announcing one or both of the following.
  • Sun's own Linux boxes for the Itanium processor, either homegrown, or more likely, using code licensed from other Linux sources.
  • A faster SPARC processor, probably running at 1.5GHz, as an immediate upgrade thoughout the current server line. New servers using these chips will almost certainly offer solid state disks as a preconfigured Sun orderable acceleration option, which will boost system performance by about 30% over the clock speed.
However, following the cache memory problems which Sun experienced in 2001, the speed of market take up for any new faster SPARC servers may depend as much on smooth talking as well as cool technology
Indecs Group
With over 16 years experience, Worcestershire UK based, Indecs are specialist suppliers of a comprehensive range of computer services. Our main product lines are: Sun Microsystems, Tatung, Hewlett Packard, Unisys, Sequent/IBM, Silicon Graphics, Storagetek, Cisco, 3Com, and Bay Networks
Learn How to Trust Your Storage Drives - article by the Trusted Computing Group
Learn How to Trust Your Storage Drives - article by the Trusted Computing Group

H ow much can you trust the security of data on your storage drives?

Snugly nestling in a RAID system in your datacenter - maybe. Now what about when those self same drives are in some one else's mitts - because they've been replaced, sold or stolen?

The Trusted Computing Group has been working with storage manufacturers and other industry trade bodies to create a standard model and framework for extending security into the storage drive - using extensions of the SCSI and ATA command sets - and by extending the features originally designed for internal error logging. Although at an early stage, readers may be interested in reading and commenting (to TCG) on the draft document - which is published here as part of their market liaison exercise. ...read the article, ...Trusted Computing Group profile, Storage Security, disk sanitizers
Sun Microsystems

Oracle		 Sun and Oracle Target Entry Level Market

ORACLEWORLD COPENHAGEN, Denmark - June 26, 2002 - Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Oracle Corporation today introduced Oracle9i Release 2 and Oracle9i Application Server solutions on the newly announced four-way Sun Fire V480 server for enterprise businesses at PC server prices. The comprehensive solutions are available through Sun's Customer Ready Systems program. Customers of Sun and Oracle can get a complete Sun/Oracle solution, integrated in Sun factories and built to customers' specifications, further accelerating acquisition and deployment. ...Sun Microsystems profile

Editor's comments:- In these dark times it's good to see that Sun retains its sense of humor and still uses that old "at PC server prices" routine. They wheel that phrase out from time to time, and usually it means some old Compaq list price which one of their marketers saw in a year old PC magazine when visiting the dentist. Seriously though, Sun has to target the entry level to get new customers, because most customers start small and grow as they gain confidence in what they're using.
IBM New IBM eServer Outperforms Sun Machine By 84%

ARMONK, NEW YORK - June 25, 2002 - IBM today re-energized the $7.8 billion entry UNIX server space with the introduction of a POWER4-based eServer that offers 84% greater performance than Sun's just announced V480.

An entry-level version of IBM's groundbreaking IBM eServer p690, the IBM eServer p630 targets the heart of Sun Microsytems' product lineup -- the up-to-four-processor UNIX server segment that provided Sun with 37% of its total revenue in 2001, according to industry analyst IDC. IBM is already building momentum in the sale of entry UNIX servers, gaining 1.8 points of share in the first quarter year to year while Sun's share for the same period plummeted 7.5 points, according to IDC.

The IBM eServer p630 is designed to run Linux and the AIX 5L operating system. IBM plans to introduce dynamic LPAR capability in the fourth quarter, enabling customers to divide the machine into up to four "virtual" servers. These systems, which can be as small as a single processor, can dynamically change in size to accommodate shifting workloads.

The IBM eServer p630 is the fastest four-way Web secure server, according to the rigorous SPECweb99_SSL benchmark. The SPECweb99_SSL measures a server's ability to support a given number of secure Web users while maintaining certain performance requirements. The p630 supported 1,050 simultaneous connections, far outpacing the 568 simultaneous connections achieved by the four-way Sun V480. ...IBM profile, ...IDC profile

Editor's notes:- Sun is going to come in for a lot of negative performance comparisons this summer, due to competitors comparing new products against Sun's year old 900MHz processor. It's the same old game of leapfrog.
Network Appliance Network Appliance Announces Support for Oracle9i™ Real Application Clusters Running on Linux

Sunnyvale, CA - June 25, 2002 - Network Appliance, Inc. today announced it has completed certification for Oracle9i Database with Real Application Clusters (Oracle9i RAC) on Red Hat Linux. For customers, this certification demonstrates the power and simplicity NetApp® storage solutions with Oracle database applications deliver for running their businesses. ...Network Appliance profile
I-Bus/Phoenix
news image I-Bus
John Weller (left), Alain Arnaud (right)
. The company's unique selling point is an ability to design and manufacture fully integrated OEM computer platforms from start to finish, from a manufacturing base in the UK.

Options include full integration of hardware and software, corporate branding, and even direct distribution to the customer supply chain. This single vendor approach allows OEMs to focus entirely on their core business activities.
New I-Bus/Phoenix Appointments Consolidate European Operations

UK - June 25, 2002 - I-Bus/Phoenix, is pleased to announce the appointments of John Weller (Managing Director, UK) to joint Vice President (VP) of European operations, and Alain Arnaud (Managing Director, France) to joint VP of European sales and marketing.

This joint move spearheads the organisation's globalisation drive. The aim is to further standardise products, services and delivery times across the whole of Europe, resulting in additional improvements in service and delivery to customers. To achieve this, the UK company has already relocated to larger purpose built premises in Tangmere, West Sussex. As the new European headquarters, this serves the French, German and Scandinavian offices with centralised facilities for integration, warehousing, distribution, technical support and QA backup for all major products lines.

The latest products to benefit from this coordinated approach will be the new FUZION range of Application Ready Platforms. Ideal for OEMs, VARs and System Integrators, this off-the-shelf range is designed to maximise return on investment with minimal time to market pressures. The company's high reliability platforms form the backbone of many mission critical applications in the telecommunications, computer telephony, Internet, broadcast, industrial automation, networking, and medical sectors. ...I-Bus/Phoenix profile
Performance Technologies Performance Technologies Offers Industry's First PICMG® 2.16-Compliant Signaling Gateway Blade

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - June 25, 2002 - Performance Technologies, Inc. today announced the release of its IPnexus™ Signaling Gateway Blade the industry's first PICMG 2.16-compatible embedded SS7/IP signaling gateway.

When used in conjunction with wireless equipment, softswitches, media gateways and application servers, the IPnexus Signaling Gateway Blade bridges call control functionality and service processing capabilities of traditional circuit-switched telephone network switches and emerging IP networks. It uses Performance Technologies' own distributed software architecture for enhanced system reliability and scalability and supports the SS7 and SIGTRAN families of standard protocols.

The operating system-agnostic IPnexus Signaling Gateway Blade is capable of functioning independently while communicating with other sub-systems over the embedded Ethernet/IP backplane network of a PICMG 2.16 system. The IPnexus Blade allows systems developers to easily integrate SS7/IP functionality directly into this growing, next-generation embedded architecture.

The IPnexus Signaling Gateway Blade has an OEM price of $19,500 for eight SS7 links with general availability in mid-Q3 of this year. ...Performance Technologies profile
Redline Networks Web I/O Acceleration Allows French TV Network TFI To Handle Unprecedented World Cup Web Traffic

Campbell, Calif. and Versailles, France, - June 24 2002 - Redline Networks and Silicomp Réseaux jointly completed an Internet acceleration project for e-TF1, the online arm of TF1, France's largest commercial TV network. Three Redline Networks T|X Web I/O Accelerators installed at e-TF1's data center allowed the site to easily handle the unprecedented traffic demand that occurred during the 2002 World Cup Soccer series.

"Thanks to the installation of Redline Networks T|X 2200 Web I/O Accelerators, we were able to manage peaks reaching 280,000 simultaneous connections since the beginning of the 2002 World Cup," explains Stéphane Allaire, e-TF1 Director of Technologies. "We were able to upgrade our infrastructure without modification and give users a faster and more pleasant web experience. We were able to do so while reducing server resources, telecom resources and bandwidth needed. With the T|X appliances, we were able to provide fast access times and good site flow with traffic greater even than what e-TF1 measured on September 11th."
Rave Computer

Sun Microsystems		 Rave Computer to Publicize its Total Integrated Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Solution to the Government and Public Sector markets

E-Gov Conference 2002, Washington, DC - June 24 - Rave Computer Association, Inc. is presenting its Integrated Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Solution at E-Gov Conference, this week in Washington DC.

The realization of post September 11th has made ensuring business continuity a top priority for many industries, especially the government and public sector markets. Mission critical data and application software must be protected to ensure every organization's viability is intact. Stored data must also be recovered quickly to minimize financial loss.

Rave Computer's comprehensive product and services matrix combines the necessary components needed to quickly protect and recover data. Organizations can be assured of their business viability if their data is protected, stored securely and quickly retrievable, by deploying a complete solution orchestrated by knowledgeable IT partners in disaster recovery. The integrated Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity solution comprises the following:
  • Fault Tolerant Backup and Recovery - a RAID system designed by Rave Computer, that features Datasweep technology, delivering up-to-date, fast data backup and restore that can take place within hours-not days or weeks.
  • Intrusion Detection - an appliance and remote services provided by Network Security Systems that monitors the network, and responds with reports of security breaches.
  • Robust and Secure Platform - utilizing the latest UltraSPARC technology and Solaris operating environment from Sun Microsystems to deliver performance, reliability and security.
  • Secure Off-Site Data Facility - 750,000 square foot secure facility owned by USDCO, located 85 feet underground in the Midwest.
Government and public sector organizations are encouraged to stop by at Sun Microsystems's booth 732 to see Rave Computer present its unique modular approach in providing scalable and flexible disaster recovery solutions. ...Rave Computer profile, ...E-Gov Conference 2002
DY 4 Systems

Force Computers		 DY 4 Systems and Force Computers Announce Fully Integrated Services Portfolio

Kanata, Ontario, Canada - June 24, 2002 - Dy 4 Systems, a division of Force Computers has announced the full integration of its vantagePLUS suite of lifecycle support and professional consulting services into Force's overall services portfolio, which will continue under the SolutionsPLUS™ brand name. This change takes effect immediately.

The new fully integrated SolutionsPLUS service portfolio now provides a truly comprehensive program lifecycle management capability through the provision of long-term board-level supply and repair capabilities, extended warranties and configuration management to long-lived military and avionics programs. ...Dy 4 Systems profile, ...Force Computers profile

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