NEC: two-tier sap SD standard app benchmark on Itanium 2-based server

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, March 7, 2005

NEC Solutions, a provider of integrated solutions for the Connected Enterprise in North America, has announced its Express5800/ 1320Xe server based on Intel Itanium 2 processors, took top industry marks in the twotier SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) Standard Application Benchmark for 32-way servers. The two-tier client/server certification achieved benchmark results of 5,210 SAP SD Benchmark users and 1,572,000 dialog steps per hour.

The high capability and reliability of Express5800/1320Xe in a large-scale system environment supported 5,210 simultaneous users processing transactions every 12 seconds, outperforming the previous two-tier SAP SD Benchmark results on a 32-way system. The new benchmark results were achieved in an environment running SAP R/3 Enterprise Release 4.70 solution on a combined solution including NEC's Express5800/1320Xe, 32-way SMP, Intel Itanium 2, 1.6 GHz, 32 KB L1 cache, 256 KB L3 cache, 9 MB L3 cache, 128 GB main memory, and iStorageS2000 SAN disk array system, Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition for Itanium-based systems and SQL Server 2000 (64-bit).

"NEC's superior results in the SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark support the trend of NEC's ability to consistently deliver industry-leading high-performance computing solutions," said Larry Sheffield, senior vice president of Solutions Platform Group at NEC Solutions America. "Our results help prove that the NEC Express5800/1320Xe running SAP R/ 3 Enterprise 4.70 achieves top performance in multiple categories, exemplifying the performance capabilities these solutions bring to customers."

"The 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2000 offer customers the highest level of scalability, and is the leading platform to replace expensive, proprietary RISC-based UNIX servers running mission-critical business applications," said Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Windows Server Division, Microsoft Corp. "These record setting benchmark results are further proof that the combination of NEC hardware, Windows Server/ SQL Server, SAP software solutions, and Intel Itanium can offer customers unparalleled performance, and validates why more than 40,000(2) SAP installations run on Microsoft Windows--more than all other platforms combined."

"This sales and distribution user benchmark is another example of the outstanding scalability and performance of the Itanium processor family for the most demanding enterprise applications," said Phil Brace, general manager of server marketing, Intel's Digital Enterprise Group. "Technology innovations from NEC, SAP, and Microsoft around the Itanium processor platform offer superior business value for IT managers versus proprietary RISC solutions."

The SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark performed on January 26, 2005 by NEC in Otemachi, Tokyo, Japan was certified on February 10, 2005, certification number 2005001. In addition to the following results, more information can be found on the SAP Benchmark Web site at www.sap.com/ benchmark.Number of benchmark users & Comp. 5,210 SD Benchmark users Average dialog response time 1.93 seconds Throughput:--Fully processed order line--524,000items/ hour--Dialog steps/hour--1,572,000--SAPS--26,200 Average DB request time (dia/ upd) 0.022 sec/0.033 sec CPU utilization of central server 94% Operating system central serverWindows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition RDBMSSQL Server 2000 SAP R/3 Release4.70 Total database disk space931 GB

The high-performance NEC Express5800/1320Xe server, with eight Intel Itanium 2 processors, 1.5GHz/4MB cache and 1.6GHz/9MB cache, is currently available for order in North America. It also includes Global Master Professional software, which features provisioning and failover capabilities that enable the dynamic reconfiguration of processing elements as well as hardware-enabled high-availability features. Systems configured and tested for the SAP SD Standard Application Benchmark are available now.