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I really think this is benchmarketing at full throttle. IBM published an new TPC-C record for non-clustered systems. Okay, TPC-C is meaningless, but it´s fun to read the disclosures. Before i start: I hope you remeber the saying "TPC-C is a function about the number of disks, not a benchmark of the complete system".

A configuration with IBM Power 595 Server Model 9119-FHA yielded a TPC-C throughput of 6,085,166 transactions. That´s impressive. Even more impressive: This benchmarketing configuration used the small number of 10.992 disks with 73.4 GB capacity (The second on the list, an HP Superdome, reached 4,092,799 with just 6000 disks ). Ten thousand disks ... sounds like a real-world configuration

PS: It´s a disclosure with an availability 6 month in the future again, the maximum amount of time allowed under the rules of the TPC.

Whenever you have a IBM sales rep in front of you, trying to sell you Power6: Don´t buy it ... at least do not buy it before you´ve read this excellent blog articles. Some points i´ve already mentioned in my own articles, some points and views are new: Power 6 goes FUD Part 1,2, 3 and 4

Okay, it was too obvious to be surprised: IBM starts it´s benchmarketing run for Power6. And they start with the most useless benchmark: TPC-C. As some wise people said: TPC-C is a function over the amount of harddisks, not a benchmark about processor speed. And this baby had many disks in the benchmark configuration. 3312 36 GB harddisks to be exact. This configuration is worth for 1,616,162 transactions.

And now the kicker: Look into the benchmark about the old P5 1.9 Ghz p570. 809.144,09 transactions. But with only 1600 harddisk of the same size and the same speed.

With an twoandahalf-fold clock frequency increasement and two times the amount of harddisks i would expect more than twice the performance. Interestingly the amount of transactions per second is proportional to the amount of harddisks.

So IBM have only the choise to admit two things: Ether the TPC-C is not a benchmak with a significant message of system performance or their new Power6 baby doesn´t scale. At least not with AIX 5.3

So: This benchmark is not an archivement. It´s an embarrasment.