IBM Power Systems Running Linux Outperform Competition on Standard Benchmarks

Results demonstrate superior customer value of Power Linux by eclipsing performance of Dell, HP and Oracle systems

ARMONK, N.Y., - IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced multiple leading benchmark results for the Linux® operating system running on the IBM Power® 730 Express, which bested comparable hardware platforms running Linux or Windows®. With greater throughput per server, more scalable virtualization with less overhead, and more efficient scale-out computing with fewer servers to manage, IBM Power Linux systems help enterprises realize the innovation and economics of smarter computing through improved performance.

The IBM Power Linux system easily surpassed results of comparable Dell, HP and Oracle systems on the following benchmarks:

- IBM Power 730 Express achieved the top result of any 12-core system for the two-tier SAP® Sales and Distribution (SD) standard application benchmark with a result of 5,250 SAP SD benchmark users.(1) The two-processor, 12-core 48-thread Power 730 Express with SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 and IBM DB2 database software handled 10 percent more SAP SD benchmark users than the 12-core HP ProLiant DL380 G7 with SLES 11.(2) The Power 730 Express also topped the highest HP ProLiant Windows Server 2008 result.(3)

- IBM Power 730 Express running Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 6 delivered 14 to 56 percent more throughput than comparable Dell™ PowerEdge™, HP ProLiant and Oracle Sun blade systems based on the published industry-standard benchmarks of SPECint®_rate2006, SPECfp®_rate2006 and SPECompM®2001.(4)

As the new benchmark results exhibit, IBM Power Linux systems are more powerful than traditional x86 servers used for Linux applications. This is due to the raw performance advantage of the POWER7® processor, superior memory bandwidth, and workload optimizing technologies included within the system like PowerVM™ virtualization technology.

“New scale-out workloads like Big Data and Cloud are emerging from the Linux community and changing the way the world works,” said Scott Handy, Vice President, Power Linux Ecosystem Acceleration at IBM. “Industry-standard Linux on IBM Power Systems is tuned to the task, thus helping clients reduce workload costs. IBM is increasing our focus on and investment in exploiting the advantages of Linux on Power Systems to make our clients more competitive for select new Linux oriented workloads.”

“Since 2007, SAP has recommended SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for running SAP solutions,” said Michael Miller, Vice President, Global Alliances & Marketing at SUSE. “SUSE Linux Enterprise Server combined with IBM Power 730 Express delivers superior performance and scalability, enabling businesses to effectively manage large numbers of users and high volumes of system traffic each and every day.”

For more information on IBM Power Linux benchmark leadership visit http://www.ibm.com/systems/power/hardware/benchmarks.

1 (1) Results of IBM Power 730 on two-tier SAP SD standard application benchmark: 5,250 SAP SD benchmark users, 0.98 seconds average dialog response time. Configuration: POWER7, 3.7 GHz (2 processors / 12 cores / 48 threads), SLES 11, IBM DB2 9.7 and SAP enhancement package 4 for the SAP ERP application 6.0. Certification #2011022

2 (2) Results of HP ProLiant DL380 G7 on two-tier SAP SD standard application benchmark: 4,757 SAP SD benchmark users, 0.98 seconds average dialog response time. Configuration: Intel Xeon X5680, 3.33 GHz (2 processors / 12 cores / 24 threads), SLES 11, MaxDB 7.8, SAP enhancement package 4 for SAP ERP 6.0. Certification #2011001

3 (3) Results of HP ProLiant DL380 G7 on two-tier SAP SD standard application benchmark: 5,220 SAP SD benchmark users, 0.99 seconds average dialog response time. Configuration: Intel Xeon X5690, 3.46 GHz (2 processors / 12 cores / 24 threads), Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition, SQL Server 2008, SAP enhancement package 4 for SAP ERP 6.0. Certification # 2011005

4 For more details on SAP benchmarks, visit www.sap.com/benchmark. Results current as of June 15, 2011.

5 (4) As of June 8, 2011, the IBM Power 730 Express (3.72GHz, 12 core, RHEL 6) SPECint_rate, SPECfp_rate, SPECompM benchmark results beat the following results from HP, Dell, and Oracle: SPECint_rate2006 - Dell PowerEdge R710 Intel Xeon X5690, 12 core, 3.46 GHz result of 419 by 14% - HP ProLiant DL380 G7 Intel Xeon X5690, 12 core, 3.46 GHz result of 418 by 14%. SPECfp_rate2006 - Sun Fire X4270 M2 Intel Xeon X5690, 12 core, 3.47 GHz result of 273 by 54% - Dell PowerEdge R610 Intel Xeon X5690, 12 core, 3.46 GHz result of 272 by 55%. - HP ProLiant DL380 G7 Intel Xeon X5690, 12 core, 3.47 GHz result of 270 by 56%. SPECompM - Sun Blade X6270 M2 Intel Xeon X5690, 12 core, 3.47 GHz result of 57,894 by 39%. Visit www.spec.org for complete results.