Compare UNIX Servers

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.

Power Systems are very energy efficient as is shown in the following comparison to HP and Sun servers¹. Notice that the POWER7® processor-based servers, the IBM Power 750 Express, Power 770, and Power 780 can deliver three times the energy efficiency of competitive servers. The combination of performance, consolidation, and virtualization enables you to save up to 90% of the energy required by Sun, HP and Dell servers. POWER processor-based servers require less power for same class servers and provide even greater savings in highly consolidated environments. The Power 750 and Power 755 are ENERGY STAR®-qualified servers designed with more features to help clients become more energy efficient.

As this data below shows, using the SPECint_Rate2006 benchmark from SPEC.org, Power Systems are more energy efficient than the HP and Sun systems at each system level. The comparisons for the POWER7 processor based systems are particularly impressive. The new eight processor chip IBM Power 780 is more than 3.8 times as efficient as the HP Integrity rx7640 and more than 5 times as efficient as the Sun SPARC Enterprise M5000. Similarly the four-socket IBM Power 750 Express is over 7.2 times as efficient as the HP Integrity rx6600 and over 6.1 times as efficient as the Sun SPARC Enterprise M4000 and over 4 times as efficient as the Sun SPARC Enterprise T5440.

Energy efficiency of servers with 32 or more processor chip

Energy efficiency of eight and sixteen processor chip systems

Energy efficiency of four-socket systems