NEC does well in performance benchmarks

http://computerworld.com.sg/ShowPage.aspx?pagetype=2&articleid=7771&pubid=3&tab=Home&issueid=125

TOKYO, 25 MARCH 2008 - NEC’s new Express 5800 server has broken the TPC-E benchmark performance record with a score about 70 percent higher than the current leading machine, the Tokyo company said Tuesday.

But there’s another record the company isn’t as keen to promote: the server has set a new low in cost performance, significantly below the previous bottom-ranked machine.

TPC-E is a new benchmark from the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) that simulates online transactions at a brokerage. Customers generate transactions, account inquiries and market research and the firm interacts with the customers in the simulation. Like other benchmarks, it is intended to provide a meaningful and comparable measurement of how a server responds under load. To date benchmarks on eight machines are available.

Very cool, this article highlights NEC’s success in the Transaction Processing Performance Council benchmark, in this case using Intel’s Itanium processor, it’s great to see what configurations and technologies people are using to achieve their business/performance needs. As with anything, the results you get from your server in terms of performance are going to depend on its environment, by this I mean, the network/storage, system configuration, the operating system as well as the applications/database being optimized for the platform; ensuring that you’ve got the relevant driver pack, fixes and patches could affect your system performance. Do check it out, it’s an interesting read.