NEC Solutions America, Intel and Microsoft Announce Record 32-Way TPC-C Benchmark

NEC Solutions America, Intel Corporation and Microsoft Corp., announced that a 32-processor, Itanium 2-based server from NEC Solutions has achieved the world’s best TPC-C benchmark result on a 32-processor SMP platform. The 433,107 transactions per minute (tpmC) benchmark scores achieved by the NEC Express5800/1320Xc system were run on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition (64-bit) using Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition for 64-Bit, Itanium-Based Systems. The NEC Solutions server also took advantage of a Qlogic VI/SAN solution that consists of the SANblade QLA2350 VI/SAN NIC and SANbox2 FC switch.

“Customers using Microsoft solutions have long benefited from the top price-performance available through Windows and SQL Server. By using the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition and SQL Server 2000 (64-bit), NEC and Intel have taken performance to the next level, achieving an extraordinary non-clustered TPC-C result,” said Gordon Mangione, corporate vice president for SQL Server at Microsoft. “This new record benchmark is exciting because it shows that customers are able to deploy high-performance applications at the low cost of ownership they have come to expect from Microsoft. This is more evidence that powerful hardware and chip technology combined with innovative software offers customers the best solution across the board.”

“The breakthrough TPC-C results are truly an engineering achievement of the highest order. Integrating Microsoft and Intel technologies with NEC’s supercomputing and mainframe technologies means the best of all worlds is coming together,” said Mike Mitsch, Sr. Director, NEC Solutions America, Server Division. “NEC’s technology is used in systems like the Earth Simulator, the fastest computer on earth. The price / performance of Microsoft and Intel technology is incredible considering that their products are ubiquitous and yet can leverage the most sophisticated hardware technology available today. A very strong case can now be made for cutting equipment and management costs while dramatically improving performance.”