Sun Takes #1 Spot in TPC-C Benchmarks!

Sun Takes #1 Spot in TPC-C Benchmarks!

Abstract

Sun has long participated in benchmarks. Some benchmarks have been left idle by Sun for may years. Sun has released a new TPC-C benchmark, using a cluster of T2+, earlier than advertised.

An interesting blog on the topic

• http://blogs.sun.com/BestPerf/entry/tpc_c_world_record_sun

Interesting Observations

• Order of magnitude fewer racks to produce a faster solution
• Order of magnitude fewer watts per 1000 tpmC
• Sun's 36 sockets to IBM's 32 sockets
• 10 GigE & FC instead of InfiniBand
• Intel based OpenSolaris storage servers, instead of AMD "Thumper " based servers

Some thoughts:

• The order of magnitude improvements in space and power consumption was obviously more compelling to someone than shooting for an order of magnitude improvement in performance
• The performance could have been faster by adding more hosts to the RAC configuration, but the order of magnitude comparisons would be lost
• The cost savings for superior performing SPARC cluster is dramatic: fewer hardware components for maintenance , lower HVAC costs, lower UPS costs, lower generator costs, lower cabling costs, lower data center square footage costs
• The pricing per SPARC core is still to high for the T2 and T2+ processors, in comparison to the performance with competing sockets
• The negative hammering by a few internet posters about the Sun OpenSPARC CoolThreads processors not being capable of running large databases is finally put to rest

It would have been nice to see:

• a more scalable SMP solution, but this solution will expand better in an IBM horse race
• a full Sun QDR InfiniBand configuration
• a full end-to-end 10GigE configuration
• Ithe T2 with embedded 10GigE clustered instead of the T2+ with the 10GigE card