The Four Hundred - Power System 750 vs Its Predecessors

Vendor

IBM

Cheapo Model, All 8 Cores

Cheapo 8 Cores, All 5250

Make

i5 550

System i

Power Systems

Model

Standard Edition (7154)

Enterprise Edition (7155)

525

M50

550

750

Processor

Power5+

Power6

Power6+

Power7

Active Cores

2

There was no user-priced

2

CPU Speed

1.9 GHz

System i 550-class machine.

1.9 GHz

3.5 GHz

4.2 GHz

4.7 GHz

5 GHz

3 GHz

3.3 GHz

Cache per Core

950 KB

960 KB

4 MB

OLTP TPM

70,645

I have always thought this

70,645

77,113

92,535

94,525

105,470

110,943

118,903

CPW Rating

7,100

was a big mistake.

7,100

7,750

9,300

9,500

10,600

11,150

11,950

Memory

8 GB

16 GB

8 GB

16 GB

8 GB

16 GB

8 GB

16 GB

8 GB

16 GB

Disk

8 * 35.2 GB, RAID 5

Here is a pair of representative

8 x 70 GB

Tape

37.5 GB SLR 60

System i 525 machines for the

36 GB 4mm

OS

i5/OS V5R4

sake of comparison.

i5/OS V5R4

i 6.1

i 6.1, 5250 Enabled

i 6.1

i 6.1, 5250 Enabled

i 7.1

i 7.1, 5250 Enabled

DB

DB2/400

DB2 for i

Users

40

150

Obviously, these machines are

40

150

40

150

40

150

40

150

Hypervisor

Virtualization Engine

priced more attractively than

Virtualization Engine

Power VM Standard

System List Price

$122,545

$322,545

$327,341

any 550-class box.

$53,780

$85,359

$145,269

$258,472

$262,568

$115,505

$185,219

$194,579

$111,838

$139,098

$140,163

Cost Per TPM List

$1.73

$4.57

$4.63

$0.76

$1.21

$1.88

$2.79

$2.84

$1.22

$1.76

$1.84

$1.01

$1.17

$1.18

Cost Per User

$3,064

$8,064

$2,182

$1,345

$569

$3,632

$6,462

$1,750

$2,888

$4,630

$1,297

$2,796

$3,477

$934

CPW Price/Performance Improvement

83%

74%

-9%

39%

35%

37%

35%

18%

33%

36%

User Price/Performance Improvement

83%

74%

-19%

20%

28%

26%

3%

25%

28%

Vendor

IBM

Make

i5 550

Power Systems

Model

Standard Edition (7154)

Enterprise Edition (7155)

There was no user-priced

M50

550

750

Processor

Power5+

System i 520-class machine

Power6

Power6+

Power7

Active Cores

4

with four cores.

4

8

32

CPU Speed

1.9 GHz

3.5 GHz

4.2 GHz

4.7 GHz

5 GHz

3 GHz

3.3 GHz

3 GHz

Cache per Core

950 KB

If you remember, I proposed

8 MB

4 MB

OLTP TPM

139,300

using quad-core modules

149,250

179,100

182,085

286,560

221,885

237,805

443,770

1,575,085

CPW Rating

14,000

to fix this, and QCMs across

15,000

18,000

18,300

28,800

22,300

23,900

44,600

158,300

Memory

16 GB

32 GB

the line, in fact, to make up

16 GB

32 GB

16 GB

32 GB

16 GB

32 GB

128 GB

512 GB

Disk

8 * 35.2 GB, RAID 5

for performance differences

8 x 70 GB

Tape

37.5 GB SLR 60

between p and i boxes.

36 GB 4mm

OS

i5/OS V5R4

i 6.1

i 6.1, 5250 Enabled

i 6.1

i 6.1, 5250 Enabled

i 7.1

i 7.1, 5250 Enabled

i 7.1

i 7.1, 5250 Enabled

i 7.1

i 7.1, 5250 Enabled

DB

DB2/400

DB2 for i

Users

80

300

80

300

80

300

80

300

600

2,400

Hypervisor

Virtualization Engine

Power VM Standard

System List Price

$211,541

$511,541

$521,133

$250,020

$476,426

$484,618

$222,495

$461,923

$480,643

$201,723

$279,783

$281,913

$386,413

$446,413

$1,512,247

$1,572,247

Cost Per TPM List

$1.52

$3.67

$3.74

$1.68

$2.66

$2.71

$1.22

$1.61

$1.68

$0.91

$1.18

$1.19

$0.87

$1.01

$0.96

$1.00

Cost Per User

$2,644

$6,394

$1,737

$3,125

$5,955

$1,615

$2,781

$5,774

$1,602

$2,522

$3,497

$940

$644

$744

$630

$655

CPW Price/Performance Improvement

-10%

28%

27%

39%

38%

26%

27%

29%

User Price/Performance Improvement

-18%

7%

11%

3%

1%

9%

39%

41%