Re: TPC-B Benchmark For Oracle7

I don't usually jump into conversations, but, what the heck.......

In article <20APR199411205987_at_ccnova.sunysb.edu>, skapur_at_ccnova.sunysb.edu (Sanjay Kapur) writes:

 >>In article <2p1ngu$han_at_fido.asd.sgi.com>, sreiss_at_powerplay.engr.sgi.com >>Reiss) writes...>If you are looking for high TPC-B numbers to compare  against, >>then the

>>highest TPC-B result is from Silicon Graphics Computer Systems.
>>
>>We achieved 1786.20 tps-b at a cost of $1,610/tps.  This was on a 28 CPU
>>Challenge XL server running Oracle 7.0.15.4.1
 

|> The original question was about NTAS based machines. Under most
|> circumstances
|> that would nowadays imply a Pentium with say 64MB of memory, and 10 GB
|> of disk
|> and software etc. The total price would be under $25,000.
|>
|> What is the highest TPC-A, TPC-B or the newly announced TCP-C for a
|> machine
|> costing under $25,000? The Encore machine and the SGI machine both are
|> in the
|> three million dollar range and are basically competing for the dollars
|> of
|> very large IBM mainframe customers which are very few and dwindling in
|> number.

Certainly, this benchmark is on a high end machine....and no, it is not a $3M
machine. The $/tps is calculated including the cost of all software (oracle) and 5 year cost of ownership for the system under test. The actual cost of the SGI machine for the above mentioned benchmark was about $2M including about $1M for disks alone. Remember, at the higher TPC rates you need much more disk to support the size of the database.

At the low end, SGI has the Indy workstation which starts at $4995 (diskless).
$25K will more than buy a machine sufficient to run Oracle. Our machines are binary compatible throughout the product line. Also, the Challenge comes anywhere from 2-36 CPUS.

So, we are not aimed solely at the highend user.

|>
|> Therefore, my challenge to all the vendors on the net:
|>
|> What is the highest TPC-x number for your system that cost under
|> $25,000?
|>
We have not submitted any benchmark numbers for the lower configurations, although we have run them internally. By the rules of the TPC, I am not allowed to disclose any such benchmarks unless they have been audited and submitted to the TPC. We can support oracle on cheaper machines and the performance is very good. I leave the interpolation up to the user. Mind you, that 28 cpus does not provide linear scaling, so you cannot simply divide 1786/28 to get a single CPU number.

|> I believe $25,000 would be the upper limit most small businesses and
|> departments in larger businesses or other institutions would put up for
|> a
|> database server.

This is pretty low and does not allow for much scalability

|>
|> Another useful comparison would be with minicomputers like the VAX/DEC
|> 4000
|> series or the SUN Sparcenter 1000 series. In that case,
|>
|> What is the highest TPC-x number for your system that cost
|> under $50,000? under 100,000?
|>
|> I believe $100,000 would be the upper limit most medium sized businesses
|> and
|> larger departments in larger businesses would put up for a database
|> server.
|>
|> The real trick is not to make a fast machine, but a fast machine that is
|> both
|> reliable and affordable.

When looking at a DB Server, one needs to look at price/performance. Just looking cheap is not the answer (unless you are limited by budget as opposed to the need to properly do the job. Thus, the TPC requires the price/performance pair to always be used when discussing benchmark results. Looking through the TPC results, you will notice that the lowend $/tps also do not exhibit a great deal of performance (nor will these systems be expandable). As an example, Compaq and Apple have the price lead but are not highly expandable. Compaq does have a reasonably good performance number. My belief is that we would be very competive at the low end in terms of price performance.

Bottom line is that people need to search for the right combination for the job.
If a Compaq Proliant or an NTAS machine is what they need, go for it. If high performance, low price/performance, and scalability is what they need, look at something like SGI....plus we have cool graphics ;-)

|>
|>
|> Sanjay Kapur (SK54) |Internet:
|> Sanjay.Kapur_at_sunysb.edu
|> Systems Staff, Computing Services, |Bitnet: SKAPUR_at_USB
|> State University of New York, |SPAN/HEPnet: 44132::SKAPUR
|> Stony Brook, NY 11794-2400 |Phone:+1-516 632 8029, FAX:+1-516
|> 632 8046
|>
|>
 

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