IBM ICES Competition with Record-Breaking Linux Database Performance

ARMONK, N.Y. - 14 Feb 2005: IBM today set a new standard for Linux database performance with the announcement of a record-shattering 1 Terabyte (TB) TPC-H benchmark using the IBM DB2 Integrated Cluster Environment (DB2 ICE). This is the first time that a large data cluster delivered record-breaking performance at a price point that is lower than any other system in the industry.
 
The cluster was composed of 64 IBM eServer xSeries 346 systems running DB2 Universal Database v 8.2 on SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9. The cluster delivered a performance of 53451.4 QphH for a price/performance of $33 per QphH. (1)

DB2 ICE is a pre-packaged Linux database cluster solution that helps businesses of any size implement a low-cost, high-performance database platform based on IBM Universal Database for Linux and IBM eServer systems. Designed to generate a fast return on investment and lower the total cost of computing, DB2 ICE provides businesses with the essential building blocks for highly available and dynamically scalable Linux database clusters from 1 to 1,000 nodes.

The results of the benchmark clearly illustrate the benefits of a unified IBM hardware/software solution as it delivers a 50 percent performance increase for almost half the price/performance of the HP/Oracle solution that previously held the number one ranking.

"The new world record clearly demonstrates the strengths of SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 - it is the right choice for customers who are looking for great performance, while still reducing costs, in mission-critical deployments," said Markus Rex, general manager of Novell's SUSE LINUX business unit. "DB2 Universal Database, eServer xSeries 346 and SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 deliver an unmatched value to even small and medium-sized businesses who want to lower their cost of ownership and benefit from exceptional stability, performance and security of Linux."

"With this new result, we're literally changing the landscape and economics of the datacenter," said Gary Schneider, director, Linux Competitive Technology, IBM Information Management. "As proven here, the combination of DB2 Universal Database, clustered IBM eServer systems and Novell's SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 provide unmatched performance at a price that is lower than the non-clustered alternative. This ability to dynamically scale-out cost effectively is an exciting solution for anyone seeking to eliminate their reliance on proprietary platforms or higher-priced database software."

As data volumes increase exponentially, the scalability and performance of DB2 on Linux are cited as key reasons why customers and business partners are choosing IBM over competitors. Today's record shattering price/performance benchmark is the latest in a series of industry-leading records that DB2 has established utilizing the Linux operating system.

Currently DB2 holds numerous industry-leading Linux benchmarks and at least six TPC-H records including:

• Best performance in TPC-H 100GB, 300GB and 1TB scale factors in both the clustered and non-clustered categories (2, 4)
• Best TPC-H performance among all 8-processor configurations in the 300GB category (3)
• Best TPC-H performance @100GB among all results on 2-way systems (5)
• DB2 offers the industry's broadest platform support and is the only vendor to have published industry-standard benchmark results on servers built on IBM's Power5, Intel's IA32, EM64T, IA64, and AMD's Opteron processor.
• Best 4-way result on the three-tier SAP® Sales and Distribution (SD) Standard Application Benchmark. (6)
• Best score for the SPECjAppServer2004 Standard benchmark. (7)
  Industry Leading InfiniBand Support

IBM, a leader in InfiniBand development and the first database vendor to support InfiniBand technology, also announced today that DB2 ICE now offers support for the InfiniBand I/O architecture. IBM's DB2 ICE is the industry's only end-to-end solution to deliver a full InfiniBand database cluster with up to 1000 nodes. InfiniBand enhances the scalability and simplifies the deployment of large clusters - increasing communications of the systems by up to 10 times over traditional methods.

Traditionally, servers have relied on shared bus architecture for I/O connectivity, starting with the industry standard architecture (ISA) bus. For the past decade, servers have also utilized myriad iterations of the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus. By creating a unified fabric, InfiniBand provides a means of sharing I/O interconnects among many servers. InfiniBand does not eliminate the need for other interconnect technologies, instead, it creates a more efficient way to connect storage and communications networks and server clusters together, while delivering an I/O infrastructure that will produce the efficiency, reliability and scalability that today's data centers demand.

For more information on DB2 ICE visit: www.ibm.com

IBM, DB2, POWER5, eServer, xSeries, and the IBM e-business logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. For a list of additional IBM trademarks, please see www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml

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Statements concerning IBM's pricing, future development plans and schedules are made for planning purposes only, and are subject to change or withdrawal without notice.

LINUX is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

SUSE is a registered trademark of SUSE AG, a Novell company.

Intel and Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation.

Opteron is trademarks or registered trademark of AMD.

All other company/product names and service marks may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

TPC Benchmark, TPC-H, and QphH are trademarks of the Transaction Processing Performance Council. For further TPC-related information, please see http://www.tpc.org

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For all published SPECjAppServer2004 results, visit: www.spec.org/jAppServer2004/results/jAppServer2004.html

For more information regarding these results and SAP benchmarks, visit www.sap.com/benchmark

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(1) IBM DB2 Universal Database v8.2 on 64 IBM eServer xSeries 346 (INTEL EM64 XXX GHz) running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9; Metrics: 53451.4 QphH for a $33 per QphH Availability date: Feb 14, 2005

(2) IBM DB2 Universal Database v8.2 on a 4-way IBM eServer OpenPower 720 (POWER5 1.65 GHz) running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9; Metrics: 6357 QphH@100GB

and $42 per QphH@100GB

; Available: 12/15/04.

(3) IBM DB2 Universal Database v8.2 on a cluster of two 4-way IBM eServer OpenPower 720's (POWER5 1.65 GHz) running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9; Metrics: 12006 QphH@300GB

and $40 per QphH@300GB

; Available: 12/15/04.

(4) IBM DB2 UDB Express Edition v8.2 on IBM eServer xSeries 346 (Intel Xeon 3.6 GHz) running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9; Metrics: 1894 QphH @ 100GB and $14/QphH @ 100GB; Available: 12/14/04

(5) This benchmark fully complies with the SAP Benchmark Council regulations and has been audited and certified by SAP AG (certification number 2004074). Details can be obtained from IBM and SAP. The benchmark was performed at Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA, by IBM engineers.

(6) IBM DB2 UDB Express Edition v8.2 on IBM eServer xSeries 346 (Intel Xeon 3.6 GHz) running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9; Metrics: 1894 QphH @ 100GB and $14/QphH @ 100GB; Available: 12/14/04

(7) The following description is an excerpt from SPEC's April 2004 press release announcing SPECjAppServer2004: The Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC) released SPECjAppServer2004, a new benchmark that measures the performance of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application servers. SPECjAppServer2004 is a completely new benchmark and not comparable to SPEC J2EE benchmarks released in late 2002. It includes a modified workload and features that stress more of the capabilities of J2EE 1.3 or later application servers. The intent of this benchmark is to provide a level playing field on which to test and compare the latest J2EE hardware and software platforms. Performance is measured in SPECjAppServer2004 by a metric called JOPS (jAppServer Operations per Second). The metric is derived by adding the operations per second in the dealer domain to the work orders per second in the manufacturing domain.

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