IBM's Linux Based POWER6 CPUs Smack Down HP

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ARMONK, NY – (NYSE:IBM) IBM's new POWER6 processor-based UNIX server has posted world records in key metrics of computing performance vital to a broad range of technical and commercial applications. These leadership results were obtained on 1-core, 4-core, 8-core, and 16-core servers running either Linux or the IBM UNIX operating system, AIX, allowing customers substantial flexibility.

"IBM System p servers supply industry-leading performance on both operating systems, providing customers the opportunity to reduce energy costs by consolidating smaller, less-efficient servers," said Scott Handy, vice president of worldwide marketing for System p servers at IBM.

The new IBM System p 570 server achieved record-breaking results in the SPECfp_2006 and per core SPECfp_rate2006 benchmarks, which determine the speed and throughput, respectively, of floating point calculations common in scientific applications as well as commercial workloads such as financial trading and product design.

In the SPECfp_2006 benchmark, which measures speed, a single core of a 4.7 GHz POWER6 processor in an IBM System p 570 server running SUSE Linux scored 22.4, the highest result in the industry. System p 570 results are 23% better than an HP Integrity rx6600 running HP-UX result of 18.1.(1)

In the SPECfp_rate2006 benchmark, which is a measurement of system throughput, an IBM System p 570 server with two 4.7 GHz POWER6 processors (4 cores) running the AIX operating system scored 115 versus 51.3 for an HP Proliant DL585 G2 with two 3.0 GHz AMD processors (4 cores) running SUSE Linux -- a difference of 124 percent.(2)

In the SPECfp_rate2006 benchmark's 8-core results, an IBM System p 570 server with four 4.7 GHz POWER6 processors running AIX scored 213 versus 98.7 for an HP Proliant DL585 G2 with four 3.0 GHz AMD Opteron processors running SUSE Linux -- a difference of 115 percent.(3)

And in the SPECfp_rate2006 benchmark's 16-core results, an IBM System p 570 server with eight 4.7 GHz POWER6 processors running Linux scored 428 versus 186 for an HP Integrity rx8640 with eight 1.6 GHz Itanium 2 processors running HP-UX.(4)

"The System p 570 running the POWER6 microprocessor was designed from the ground up to be a balanced system, with massive bandwidth to accommodate the machine's incredible speed," said Handy. "These benchmark results indicate the kind of performance that will help enable customers to create the efficient data centers of the future."

crazy...ther's no point to make comparison between PPC and X86, both of them have different type of technology.

Some more the linux running with PPC has been fine tunes by IBM.

Yes, that's cool. But It is also much more expensive platform. Cheaper and more efficient to build your own cluster system...like this one http://www.clustermonkey.net//content/view/211/1/

Within the new p570 one could virtualize lots of aix and linux partitions within the box. Considering that this gives 16 power6 processors and 768 GB Memory and 24 pci slots available. So we may set up two (example) virtual ioservers and by using shared ethernet functionality with failover and virtual scsi. This would render in using 2 dual port 4gbit Fc for sanattach, one card each for the vioservers, and additional ethernet (or why not use the 4 built in option which is dual/quad/dual 10gb).

In this example we only use 4 FC connections and 4 ethernet connections for all partitions using virtual resources. A partition can use all virtual resources all dedicated resources or even a mix of resources. A partition using virtualized resources can easily migrate to dedicated resources if needed. A partition with virtual resources can move from one power6 machine to another, 570 to 550 or other p6 model.

With 16 power6 processors there may be 160 partitions maximum.

Within the shared cpu pool free resources are there for all to use (could be restricted) and the weight of the partition is set so that important partitions get more of the free resources.

All movement of resources are dynamic without the need for reboot or reactivate the partition! (in linux only memory change needs reactivate of partition, in the release i´ve seen.

In management, scalability, ras, performance then power based machines are best in class.

So in the end what are your demands and how do you count the TCO.

IBM's Linux Based POWER6 CPUs Smack Down HP

IBM's Linux Based POWER6 CPUs Smack Down HP

cool, but is it cheaper?

Power6 and Linux/AIX