Applications:

Microsoft Record on SAP Standard Application Benchmark

New record results show that a 32-processor Unisys server running Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition delivers the best performance on the highly coveted SAP Standard Application Sales and Distribution (SD) Benchmark. E-businesses that rely on their software and hardware to deliver headroom for growth can achieve better results with a Windows- and SQL Server-based system.

The SAP Standard Application SD Benchmark has become a de facto standard that today's leading companies depend on for measuring the scale-up performance of SAP-based systems. It provides a key measure of real-world performance in the e-business environment by simulating the maximum number of users a given system can handle while maintaining response times of less than 2 seconds.

Microsoft announced that a Unisys ES7000 PD2 database server, with 32 Intel Pentium III Xeon 900MHz processors, 12 GB of memory and a 2MB level two cache, running Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition and SAP R/3 release 4.6C in a three-tier Internet configuration set a new high-water mark with 24,000 concurrent SAP Standard Application SD Benchmark users. This system averaged a 1.94-second response time with a throughput of 2,411,330 fully processed business line items, surpassing the previous No. 1 result for the benchmark. Moreover, the Microsoft and Unisys solution delivers this level of scalability on a system with half the number of processors of the database server used for the next best result.

"With this benchmark result, SQL Server 2000, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server and the Unisys ES7000 prove their ability to scale up to the most demanding SAP solution-based enterprises, putting to rest any performance justification for higher-priced UNIX-based systems," said Gordon Mangione, vice president for SQL Server at Microsoft.

This benchmark fully complies with the SAP Benchmark Council's issued regulations and has been audited and certified by SAP. More information is available at www.sap.com/benchmark.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is a worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.

Contact Eleanor Davis, 503-412-3663, eleanord@wagged.com, of Waggener Edstrom, for Microsoft Corp.