Computers & Processors:

Windows- and Intel-Based Unisys ES7000

The Unisys e-@ction Enterprise Server ES7000 surpassed the best performance of any other server ever tested in the SAP Standard Application Benchmark, Unisys said. The benchmark is an industry-standard measure of e-business application server performance.

Equipped with 32 Intel Pentium III Xeon 32-bit processors, the Unisys ES7000 supported 24,000 concurrent SAP Standard Application Sales and Distribution (SD) users. The benchmark was conducted at the Unisys performance laboratory in Mission Viejo, Ca. and has been certified by SAP AG.

Armed with this benchmark data, enterprises relying on mission-critical solutions such as the mySAP.com e-business platform have objective evidence that there is no longer any performance advantage to be gained with higher-priced UNIX/RISC-based servers. The increasing competitive pressure the test brings to bear on such vendors will result in improved economics and more flexible choice of solutions for enterprises.

"This latest SAP benchmark result on the Unisys ES7000 reinforces our belief that Windows- and Intel-based servers achieve the highest levels of performance for strategic enterprise applications like mySAP.com," said Robert Dorin, research director, Aberdeen Group. "Furthermore, its price-performance and reliability characteristics make it an attractive alternative to high-end UNIX-based systems."

"Unsurpassed speed, capacity and power are now combined with superior computing economics and the flexibility of open systems," said Mark Feverston, vice president, Unisys Server Programs. "These are 32-bit, 32-processor systems outperforming 64-bit servers with many more processors. The potential for gaining substantial price-performance advantages over UNIX/RISC-based machines is enormous."

In the test, the Unisys ES7000 ran Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, the Microsoft operating system designed for mainframe-class performance, scalability and reliability, Microsoft's SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition database management system and SAP R/3 Release 4.6C.

"With this benchmark result, SQL Server 2000, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server and the Unisys ES7000 put to rest any performance justification for the price penalties imposed by UNIX-based systems," said Gordon Mangione, vice president for SQL Server at Microsoft. "It shows the momentum Microsoft-based enterprise computing has in achieving continuous performance improvements, and the potential for customer benefit."

The SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark simulates the maximum number of concurrent users supported by a system within acceptable response times. The simulated user workload was achieved with an average dialog response time of 1.94 seconds and is equivalent to 2,411,330 fully business processed order line items per hour. The results were derived using the SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark methodology, an industry standard measurement. More information on the benchmark is available at www.sap.com/benchmark or upon request from Unisys and SAP AG.

The Unisys ES7000 tested as a database server was configured with 32 Intel Pentium III Xeon 900-MHz processors with 2 Mbytes of level-two cache, 12 Gbytes of main memory and 128 Mbytes of level-three cache. The server ran Microsoft Corp's Windows 2000 Datacenter Server operating system, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition database, and SAP R/3 Release 4.6C. Database server CPU utilization was 93 percent. Ninety-eight Unisys e-@ction Enterprise Server ES5085s, each with eight 700-MHz Intel Pentium III Xeon processors and 4 Gbytes of memory, and one Unisys e-@ction Enterprise Server ES5085 with eight 900-MHz Intel Pentium III Xeon processors and 4 Gbytes of memory were also used in the test as application servers. CPU utilization on the application servers was 62 percent. Total disk space was 1.5 Tbytes.

The Unisys test configuration was connected over Emulex VI network using CL1000 host bus adapters and CL5300 30-port cluster switches. Emulex VI network supports the Virtual Interface (VI) Architecture, which enables application servers to communicate with database servers at very high speeds and with ultra-low latency.

Unisys has been a SAP Certified Platform Partner and Certified Complementary Software Partner since 1997. To support this agreement, Unisys operates Competency Centers in Sulzbach, Germany and McLean, Virginia, dedicated to sizing and tuning SAP applications for peak performance on ES7000 server platforms. More recently, the Unisys Federal Division signed an agreement with SAP to resell select SAP software.

The Unisys ES7000: Enterprise-class Windows performance powered by CMP The Unisys ES7000 is based on the Unisys Cellular MultiProcessing (CMP) server architecture, which provides an array of computing capabilities required for enterprise-class e-business computing -- capabilities that are well known to users of large-scale computers, but unprecedented in computing environments using Microsoft and Intel technology. The ES7000 was designed for the power of Intel 64-bit Itanium processors. Using CMP's innovative partitioning capabilities, Itanium and Pentium III Xeon processors can run side-by-side within one server. These and other advantages enable CMP-based servers to match the performance of UNIX systems in enterprise-class e-business and other critical applications at a fraction of the price.

About Unisys

Unisys is an e-business solutions company whose employees help customers in 100 countries apply information technology to seize opportunities and overcome challenges of the Internet economy. Unisys people integrate and deliver the solutions, services, platforms and network infrastructure required by business and government to transform their organizations for success in this new era. The company offers a rich portfolio of Unisys e-@ction Solutions for e-business based on its expertise in vertical industry solutions, network services, outsourcing, systems integration and multivendor support, coupled with enterprise-class server and related technologies. The primary vertical markets Unisys serves worldwide include financial services, transportation, communications, publishing and commercial sectors, as well as the public sector, including federal government customers. Unisys is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, in the Greater Philadelphia area. For more information on the company, access the Unisys home page on the World Wide Web at www.unisys.com.