The Solaris^TM Performance Advantage

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

October 12, 2004 -- Power enterprise applications at record speed with the one-two punch of the Solaris OS and AMD Opteron processors.

The powerful combination of the Solaris OS and the AMD Opteron processors is shattering benchmark records and delivering breakthrough price/performance for databases, application servers, Web servers, compilers, and more.

• On similar x86 systems at a financial services company, the Sun Java System Application Server on the Solaris 10 OS is more than twice as fast as IBM WebSphere on Linux (see graphic below).
• On the Sun Java System Web Server, the Solaris 10 OS on the AMD Opteron processor-based systems improves performance by nearly 45 percent on the same hardware, as compared to the Solaris 9 OS (see graphic below).
• Sun customers report that the Solaris 10 OS outperforms Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 by 14 percent to 38 percent on the Sun Java System Web Server and Apache Web Server, respectively (see graphic below).
• On an AMD Opteron processor-based system (the Sun Fire V20z server), the Sun Studio 9 software on the Solaris 10 OS delivers up to 60% better runtime performance for a scientific application over open source alternatives on Solaris 10.
• For a financial services application, the Sun Studio 9 software on the Solaris 10 OS outperforms open source compilers on Linux, delivering a 63% increase in transactions per second.
• On the BLAST bio-informatics benchmark, a Sun Java Workstation W1100z (with a 2.4-GHz AMD Opteron processor) running the Solaris 10 OS achieves up to 61 percent better performance than a Dell Precision 650 (with a 3.2-GHz Intel Xeon Processor MP) running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0.

Dynamic Duo

Using Sun Fire V20z servers with AMD Opteron processors, Solaris 10 delivers superior application and web server performance.

See the first three notes on this page for full configuration details.

"Sun's AMD Opteron processor-based systems are the fastest and most cost-effective solutions out there," says Sunay Tripathi, Sun senior staff engineer, Solaris Network and Security Technologies. "Customers can now rely on x86 hardware for all types of enterprise-class applications."

You can find out more about the record-breaking performance of Sun's AMD Opteron processor-based systems at Sun.com:

• Sun Fire V20z server benchmarks
• Sun Fire V40z server benchmarks
• Sun Java Workstation W1100z benchmarks
• Sun Java Workstation W2100z benchmarks

• Combines cost-effectiveness and high performance
• Leverages breakthrough technologies in Solaris 10
• Protects investments thanks to full 32-bit binary compatibility
• Supercharges demanding real-world enterprise applications
• Technology test drives at no charge

The combination of the AMD Opteron processor-based systems and the Solaris 9 OS also proves its performance credentials and price/performance leadership.

Performance

The Solaris 9 OS on the AMD Opteron processors is up to 29 percent faster than the Solaris 9 OS on the Intel Xeon processors, thanks to the AMD Opteron processor's advanced HyperTransport bus.

On the AMD Opteron processor-based systems, the Solaris 9 OS demonstrates up to 123 percent better performance in I/O-intensive operations than does Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0.

Price/Performance

On the SPECjAppServer2002 MultipleNode benchmark, the Sun Fire V20z and the Sun Fire V40z servers running the Solaris 9 OS delivered world-record price/performance of U.S. $82/TOPS@MultipleNode.

Also a boon to the bottom line, the cost of the Solaris 9 OS (x86 Platform Edition) plus standard support is as much as 58 percent lower than the cost of Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS over three years.

Real-World Performance

Sun's AMD Opteron processor-based systems with the Solaris OS deliver blazing performance in the real world as well. One of the country's leading consumer ISPs had been sending 4000 messages per second on the Solaris 9 OS. After briefly switching to Linux, the company returned to the Solaris OS, lured by the Solaris 10 OS's astounding performance. The ISP now sends 25,000 messages per second on the same AMD Opteron processor-based hardware and has abandoned Linux.

Sun also continues to work with partners to expand the application portfolio for x86. Earlier this month, Sun announced that Siebel Systems will support Siebel Enterprise Edition for the Solaris OS (x86 Platform Edition). When complete, customers will be able to cost-effectively run Siebel software on Sun's latest volume systems.

How Solaris Makes it Happen

What makes such performance successes possible? With the Solaris OS, Sun has analyzed many different customer workloads to optimize the operating system and amplify the existing strengths of the AMD Opteron processor. The Solaris 10 OS also includes three breakthrough technologies that help maximize real-world performance:

• High-performance TCP/IP stack (Fire Engine)
• N1 Grid Containers software
• Solaris dynamic tracing framework, DTrace

By fully taking advantage of these technologies, Sun AMD Opteron processor-based systems give customers the flexibility to rely on x86 hardware for all types of enterprise-class applications.

Get Started Today

There are several ways you can begin taking advantage of the performance and price advantages of the Solaris OS and Sun AMD Opteron processor-based systems. Thousands of customers are already benefiting from the groundbreaking new features of Solaris 10 through Sun's Software Express program.

Also check out the remarkably low prices of Sun's AMD Opteron processor-based servers at the Sun Store: the Sun Fire V20z server, the Sun Fire V40z server, the Sun Java Workstation W1100z, and the Sun Java Workstation W2100z.

To fully explore the power of the Solaris OS and AMD Opteron processor system combo, take the Solaris OS and AMD Opteron processor test drive. Test your applications on a Sun Fire V20z server running the Solaris 10 OS for two months, free.

And learn all about how the Solaris 10 OS delivers its extreme performance. As Tripathi says,

"Sun's focus on performance is an ongoing goal. Performance is not something you're done with."