Sun Ultra Enterprise 10000 Sets Single System OLTP Record with SAP's R/3; Sun Extends Leadership Position for Solaris and High-End SAP R/3 Performance

Business Wire, March 13, 1997

HANNOVER, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 1997--Sun Microsystems Inc. today announced new industry-leading performance for SAP(TM) R/3(TM), supporting 1410 SD (sales and distribution) benchmark users with an average dialog response time of 1.85 seconds per transaction. The record-breaking results were achieved using the Ultra(TM) Enterprise(TM) 10000 server with the Solaris(TM) 2.5.1 operating environment, running INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server in a centralized configuration -- where both the application and database server software reside on a single system. The Ultra Enterprise 10000 system, also known as Starfire(TM), offers R/3 customers one of the industry's most powerful and scalable systems for deployment as both a single centralized server, or as a database server for large-scale client/server configurations. The announcement was made today at CeBIT '97, being held March 13-19 in Hannover, Germany.

"We have achieved another milestone with this benchmark. Not only have we set performance standards for the mid-range with the Ultra Enterprise 6000 server, but now we lead the high-end in terms of fastest performance and our ability to accommodate thousands of users with a single system," said Michael Bohlig, global SAP alliance manager at Sun. "Customers used to the centralized mainframe computing model will have the same benefits of this environment, but with a solution that is more cost-effective to implement and manage over the long term."

The two-tier client/server benchmark is indicative of real-world workloads and demonstrates the ability to run both the application and database software on a single system. The Starfire benchmark results confirm that customers can get the performance they need when they want to take advantage of single system solution features such as reduced floor space, ease of administration, and total cost of ownership.

Supporting 1410 benchmark users with 1.85 seconds average dialog response times, the SAP standard sales and distribution (SD Module) benchmark was performed on a 64-CPU Starfire server using Solaris 2.5.1 operating environment running SAP's R/3 Release 3.0E (with 3.0F kernel) and INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server 7.21 as the relational database management system. The system was configured with 14 GB main memory and 350 GB total storage, including 54 GB internal disk, 161 GB of SPARCstorage (TM) Array 112 and 135 GB of Sun (TM) RSM Array (TM) 2000 (RAID 5) disk sub-systems, Sun's newest open storage product line introduced along with Starfire in January of this year. The benchmark achieved throughput of 428,000 dialog steps /hour with an average CPU utilization of 94 percent. This is equivalent to 143,000 fully business processed order line items per hour.

"Customers want concrete verification that they can achieve mainframe-class results for very large R/3 implementations," said John Shoemaker, vice president and general manager of Sun Microsystems Computer Company's Enterprise Server and Storage Group. "These results have not only set another industry record, but more importantly demonstrate Sun and SAP's joint commitment to deliver integrated network computing solutions for the largest enterprises."

"Sun is committed to the goal of reducing the time and costs associated with taking large R/3 implementations from prototype- to-production. This benchmark is evidence that Sun can support more users, within a single system, than other vendors can do with tens or hundreds of servers," Shoemaker continued.

SAP R/3 is one of the industry's leading client/server business application solutions developed to assist companies with reducing costs and improve efficiency by linking core business processes across the enterprise.

In August of last year, Sun announced record performance for the three-tier client/server benchmark using SAP's R/3 with the Ultra Enterprise 6000 server, achieving 1800 SD benchmark users. The centralized benchmark being announced today was conducted at Sun's Large Scale Computing Center in Beaverton, Oregon. The test complied with all SAP Benchmark Council regulations and has been audited and certified by SAP. Additional details regarding this benchmark are available from Sun Microsystems Inc. or SAP AG.

The Ultra Enterprise 10000 system is the industry's largest symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) server, scalable to 64 (250 MHz) UltraSPARC (TM) II processors, 64 GB (gigabytes) of memory with 64 I/O channels supporting over 20 TB (terabytes) of on-line storage. This mainframe caliber server is a high-end extension to the highly acclaimed Ultra Enterprise Server family with built-in extensions including RAS features for high-availability, Dynamic Systems Domains -- similar to Logical Partitioning found in traditional mainframes -- and industry leading bandwidth of 12.8 GB/s for high-throughput.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer(TM)," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., (NASDAQ: "SUNW"), to its position as a leading provider of hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $7 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the WorldWide Web at http://www.sun.com .