IBM eServers Outperform Sun in Java Benchmark
IBM continues to position its eServer as a solid fit for Java developers, touting the line’s superior performance over comparable offerings from Sun in the SPECjbb2000 server-side Java benchmark.
Having invested significantly in Java since the technology emerged into the mainstream in the mid 1990s, IBM is aggressively trying to beat out Sun as the premier platform among the Java community. To that end, IBM has been heavily involved in the development of technologies that leverage the Java 2 Enterprise Edition programming language.
SPECjbb2000 is the Standard Performance Evaluation Corp.'s benchmark for evaluating server-side Java performance. It models a three-tier system, the most common type of server-side Java application. SPECjbb2000 focuses on business logic and object manipulation and the work of a middle-tier Java server workload. The workload benchmarked is a typical business-critical workload, including order-entry, inquiry and payment processing.
While benchmarks offer some insight regarding the overall power of a system, they are not necessarily an accurate representation of performance in an average setting. This is because benchmarks are run on optimized systems, which are scaled down somewhat due to cost constraints when brought into an actual live business environment.
On tests measuring Java software performance on four, eight, twelve and twenty-four processor systems, IBM’s eServer’s outperformed Sun servers by as much as 56 percent.
"Our winning results across a spectrum of systems clearly demonstrate the scalability and performance IBM eServer customers can expect when deploying Java-based solutions," said Tim Dougherty director of e-business strategy for IBM in a statement. "Powered by copper and silicon-on-insulator technologies, IBM eServer systems provide an ideal platform to process the intensive, high-volume Java transactions required by today's e-businesses."
According to a SPECjbb2000 report released this week, a 4-way IBM eServer p620 performed 25,087 operations per second, outperforming a 4-way Sun 420R system by 56 percent.
IBM eServer pSeries systems also beat Sun's recently announced Sun Fire line powered by UltraSPARC-III microprocessors. An 8-way IBM eServer p680 system performed 51,565 operations per second beating an 8-way Sun Fire 6800 by 18 percent, while a 12-way p680 performed 71,303 operations per second, beating a 12-way Sun Fire 6800 by 14 percent.
The announcement of IBM’s pSeries results comes on the heels of a report that IBM’s 24-way eServer i840 system broke SPECjbb2000 performance records to become the first server to exceed 132,000 operations per second. The score was 21 percent better than a similarly configured system from Sun.
IBM eServer pSeries and iSeries systems are powered by the latest generation of IBM POWER microprocessors, featuring IBM's copper and silicon-on-insulator technologies. SOI technology is IBM’s latest microprocessing innovation, and is designed to increase performance by protecting the millions of transistors on a chip with a blanket of insulation, reducing harmful electrical leakage that wastes power.
For more information, visit www.specbench.org/ (new window), www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver (new window), www.sun.com/servers/workgroup/280r/ (new window).