Compare UNIX Servers. Learn about the benefits of IBM Power Systems compared to competitive UNIX servers.
IBM POWER6™ processor-based Linux, i, and UNIX servers are designed to help you implement a dynamic infrastructure. The combination of leadership performance, energy efficiency, flexible virtualization features and RAS features are designed to reduce your cost, improve service to end users and reduce risk – especially for mission critical applications and highly virtualized, consolidated operating environments.
Join the movement to realize the benefits
More than 1800 users of competitive hardware have eliminated server farms by migrating to Power Systems over the past three years.
Learn why Sun, HP and x86 users are moving to Power. View Video
Tab navigation
- Overview- selected tab,
- Offerings
- Dare to compare
- Migration path
- Get the facts
Tab navigation
- Overview- selected tab,
- Performance
- Availability
- Efficiency
- Virtualization
Power efficiency
One of the more pressing issues facing datacenter managers today is power usage. The power requirement for datacenters has grown so much that some customers may have to build new facilities because they can't bring enough power into current sites to run their future operations. IBM is approaching this problem with our Big Green initiative.
For Power Systems, our EnergyScale™ technology will provide features such as power trending, power-saving, and thermal measurement. These features, enabled via Active Energy Manager under the IBM Systems Director™ console, allow you to measure the energy usage of the system and direct policies toward the energy-efficient operation of the server.
Power Systems can also be placed in racks with a Rear Door Heat Exchanger. The IBM Rear Door Heat exchanger is designed to remove heat generated from the back of your computer systems before it enters the room. The efficient IBM Rear Door Heat exchanger, which takes heat from the rack with water, can substantially reduce the heat load coming from any IBM enterprise rack.
Even ignoring the advantages of these features, Power Systems are very energy efficient as is shown in the following comparison to HP and Sun servers1.
| System | SPECint_rate2006 Performance per WATT | SPECfp_rate2006 Performance per WATT |
|---|---|---|
| IBM Power 595 | 0.073 | 0.075 |
| HP Integrity Superdome | 0.068 | 0.061 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000 | 0.051 | 0.045 |
| System | SPECint_rate2006 Performance per WATT | SPECfp_rate2006 Performance per WATT |
|---|---|---|
| IBM Power 570 | 0.149 | 0.108 |
| HP Integrity rx8640 | 0.077 | 0.069 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise M8000 | 0.061 | 0.055 |
| System | SPECint_rate2006 Performance per WATT | SPECfp_rate2006 Performance per WATT |
|---|---|---|
| IBM Power 560 Express | 0.151 | 0.110 |
| HP Integrity rx7640 | 0.094 | 0.085 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise M5000 | 0.071 | 0.060 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 | 0.114 | 0.087 |
| System | SPECint_rate2006 Performance per WATT | SPECfp_rate2006 Performance per WATT |
|---|---|---|
| IBM Power 550 Express | 0.175 | 0.148 |
| HP Integrity rx6600 | 0.064 | 0.045 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise M4000 | 0.078 | 0.067 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise T5240 | 0.149 | 0.113 |
| System | SPECint_rate2006 Performance per WATT | SPECfp_rate2006 Performance per WATT |
|---|---|---|
| IBM Power 520 Express | 0.161 | 0.138 |
| HP Integrity rx3600 | 0.057 | 0.050 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise M3000 | 0.089 | 0.077 |
| System | SPECint_rate2006 Performance per WATT | SPECfp_rate2006 Performance per WATT |
|---|---|---|
| 4-core IBM BladeCenter JS23 | 0.531 | 0.446 |
| 4-core HP Integrity BL860c | 0.180 | 0.163 |
| 8-core IBM BladeCenter JS43 | 0.529 | 0.444 |
| 16-core Sun Blade T6340 | 0.400 | 0.303 |
As this data shows, using CPU throughput benchmarks from SPEC.org, Power Systems are more energy efficient than the HP and Sun systems at each system level. For example the new 32-core Power 570 and 16-core Power 560 Express are each more than twice as efficient as their Sun counterparts. The 570 is also 1.9 times as efficient as the HP rx8640 and the 560 is 1.6 times more efficient than the rx7640. The results for the Power 550 and Power 520 Express are even more impressive.
1. Competitive benchmark results reflect results published as of April 21, 2009. Each result is the best performing result for the benchmark. The benchmark results and detail can be found at the Dare to Compare Performance Web page. The SPECint_rate2006 and SPECfp_rate2006 results can also be found at www.spec.org (link resides outside of ibm.com). Except for the IBM BladeCenter JS23 Express, IBM BladeCenter JS43 Express, IBM Power 520 Express and IBM Power 550 Express results which wer submitted to SPEC on April 28, 2009 and the Blade SPECfp_rate2006 results which are shown in the table below.
| IBM BladeCenter JS23 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 92.4 | 23.1 |
| HP Integrity BL860c (1.60GHz/18MB Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2) | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 48.8 | 12.2 |
| IBM BladeCenter JS43 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 184 | 23.0 |
| Sun Blade T6340 Server Module | 16 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 121 | 7.6 |
Performance/WATT is calculated by dividing the performance from the tables on the Dare to Compare Performance webpage by the recommended maximum power usage for site planning. This defines the requirement for the power infrastructure. Actual power used by the systems will be less than this value for all of the systems. For Power Sytems, this information is available in the respective site planning guides for each system available through www.ibm.com. For HP systems, this information is contained in the QuickSpecs for each system available through www.hp.com (link resides outside of ibm.com). For Sun systems, this information is available through the respective Site Planning Guides available through www.sun.com (link resides outside of ibm.com). All data is from those documents and is current as of April 21, 2009.
The maximum power requirement for each system is:
| System | Maximum Energy Requirement (WATTs) |
|---|---|
| IBM Power 595 | 28,300 |
| HP Integrity Superdome | 24,392 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000 | 44,800 |
| System | |
| IBM Power 570 | 5,600 |
| HP Integrity rx8640 | 5,400 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise M8000 | 10,500 |
| System | |
| IBM Power 560 Express | 2,400 |
| HP Integrity rx7640 | 2,128 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise M5000 | 3,738 |
| System | |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440 | 2,629 |
| IBM Power 550 Express | 1,400 |
| HP Integrity rx6600 | 1,600 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise M4000 | 2,016 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise T5240 | 1,053 |
| IBM Power 520 Express | 770 |
| HP Integrity rx3600 | 1,095 |
| Sun SPARC Enterprise M3000 | 460 |
* All statements regarding IBM future directions and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only. Any reliance on these Statements of General Direction is at the relying party's sole risk and will not create liability or obligation for IBM.
We're here to help
Easy ways to get the answers you need.
or call us at 1-866-883-8901
Priority code: 6N8AX80W
Power = ROI - sprawl
Announcing new Power Systems pricing that can significantly lower your total cost of acquisition and accelerate ROI.
Power rewards
Sun-set Special!
Migrate applications from Sun to IBM and earn up to 8,000 points per core through December 31, 2009.
