• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Note to IBM: Price Power 720s to Crush Xeon 5600 Systems

    March 22, 2010 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    When IBM‘s entry Power 720 Power7-based servers–probably in two-socket and four-socket configurations and likely using four-core and six-core variants of the chips with lots of the L3 cache disabled if my hunch is right–come to market in maybe April or May of this year, they will be facing some pretty stiff X64 competition from systems that use the new “Westmere-EP” Xeon 5600s that Intel announced last week.

    As expected, the Xeon 5600s come in four-core and six-core variants, and deliver roughly 40 to 50 percent more oomph than their quad-core predecessors, the “Nehalem-EP” Xeon 5500s that debuted last March and that have been largely responsible for a resurgence in server sales as 2009 came to a close. As you know, I have a second life as Systems Editor over at The Register, and I am not going to duplicate the detailed analysis I did for the Xeon 5600s here. (If you are interested in that coverage, then read Intel pushes workhorse Xeons to six cores for the feeds, speeds, prices, and see Intel wants vintage x64 servers on rubbish heap for the sales pitch analysis.)

    What I will do here in The Four Hundred is remind you that a little more than a year ago, in the wake of the Xeon 5500 announcement, I said it was time for IBM to double up the processing capacity in the Power 520 and Power 550 lines or cut the software activation and per-user charges for i 6.1 roughly in half to better compete with the Nehalem-EP machines. As I showed then, for a small number of users (25), the Power 520 was in spitting distance with a Windows boxes configured to support roughly the same OLTP load and number of end users, but as you jumped to 150 and then 320 users, the i 6.1 box quickly became a lot more expensive–like three times as expensive for a complete Windows stack, including VMware server virtualization. Now, with the Westmere-EPs, the boxes will get a 50 percent or so performance boost, but the prices of the chips and the systems are more or less the same, and so will the software stack be since it is not priced per core, but per system.

    Enter the Power 720. IBM could put four to 16 cores into its entry box, offering roughly two times minimum and four times the maximum the OLTP capacity of the converged Power6+ version of the Power 520. The iron is there, and IBM should without hesitation get a very peppy Power 720 into the field to actually beat two-socket Xeon 5600 servers, socket for socket, transaction for transaction. But if IBM persists in charging too much for the i 6.1 software stack, and tries to maintain per core charges on these entry boxes and the too high per-user fees to access that stack, then there is no way the i For Business platform will compete with the Windows Server 2008-SQL Server-ESX Server triumvirate the way it needs to.

    It’s not too late to get this right, IBM.

    RELATED STORIES

    Brace Yourself For A Bevy Of Server Chip Announcements

    A Little Insight Into the Rest of the Power7 Lineup

    The Power7 Rollout Begins In The Middle

    Power Systems i: The Windows Conundrum

    Power vs. Nehalem: Time to Double Up and Double Down

    Power vs. Nehalem: Scalability Is So 1995, Cash is So 2009



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 19, Number 12 -- March 22, 2010

    Sponsored by
    RPG & DB2 Summit

    Summit Hands-On Live! Workshop Series
    April 27 – May 20, 2021

    In-Person, Interactive, In-Depth — Online!

    Master critical IBM i development skills at record speed with the Summit’s full-day Hands-On Live! workshops.

    Teaching live online via video meeting, instructors Paul Tuohy, Jon Paris, Susan Gantner, and Mike Pavlak take you deep into the best ways to use your favorite technologies, cementing your knowledge with guided, hands-on labs and personal attention.

    Choose from 7 different workshops to hone your skills.

    • SQL Procedures, Functions & Triggers
    • Intermediate SQL for RPG Developers
    • RPG Procedures & Service Programs
    • Building Modern RPG Applications (2-day workshop!)
    • RDi Quick Start
    • RDi Beyond the Basics
    • Python for RPGers

    Check out the workshop abstracts and prepare to take your productivity to new heights!

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Does An IPL Really Help Improve System Performance? CoralTree Toolkit Streamlines CGIDEV2 Web App Development

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 19 Issue: 12

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • Power7: Upgrade or Sidestep, Start Planning Now
    • IBM Flexes Java Muscles on Power7 Iron
    • IBM Looks Back on 2000s, Sets Sites on Next Decade
    • As I See It: A Different Currency
    • Madoff’s RPG Coders Indicted in Ponzi Scam
    • China Leading the Enterprise Software Charge in 2010
    • IBM Chops Prices on Racks, PDUs, and UPSes
    • Systems Engineer: The Best Job In The US of A
    • Note to IBM: Price Power 720s to Crush Xeon 5600 Systems
    • Companies Say Software Support Is Satisfactory

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • Why Open Source Is Critical for Digital Transformation
    • mrc Refreshes IBM i Low-Code Dev Tool
    • Unit Testing Automation Hits Shift Left Instead of Ctrl-Alt-Delete Cash
    • Four Hundred Monitor, March 3
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 23, Number 9
    • Doing The Texas Two Step From Power9 To Power10
    • PHP’s Legacy Problem
    • Guru: For IBM i Newcomers, An Access Client Solutions Primer
    • IBM i 7.1 Extended Out To 2024 And Up To The IBM Cloud
    • Some Practical Advice On That HMC-Power9 Impedance Mismatch

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2021 IT Jungle

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.