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Silicon Graphics Delivers New World Record in Commercial Data Sorting
Unsurpassed Sorting Speed Provides Faster Insight for Enterprise Customers
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Date: Thursday, April 10, 1997
Source: PR Newswire
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 9 /PRNewswire/ via Individual Inc. -- To
further emphasize its commitment to meeting the needs of the enterprise
computing market, Silicon Graphics, Inc. (NYSE: SGI) today announced a new
record in commercial data sorting performance. The combination of the
high-performance Silicon Graphics(R) Origin2000(TM) server and the new
scalable Ordinal(TM) Technology Nsort(TM) algorithm sets a world-record
speed that delivers faster and more scalable sorting to enterprise
customers.
The new world record, conducted using the MinuteSort commercial sorting
benchmark program, successfully sorted 53 million records (5 gigabytes) in
less than 60 seconds. This result is six times faster than the previous
378-second result held by Digital Equipment Corporation running Syncsort on
an AlphaServer(TM) system.
"With the explosive growth of information in today's enterprises, the task
of sorting has never been more crucial," said Ash Munshi, vice president
and general manager at Silicon Graphics. "With Ordinal Technology we have
tackled the problem of fast, scalable sorting and addressed a basic problem
that has been a stumbling block to many data-intensive applications such as
data warehousing and the World Wide Web."
"Sorting is a key tool for data mining, data warehousing and decision
support applications, and it's the workhorse for database loading, indexing
and reorganization functions," said James N. Gray, Microsoft senior
researcher and Ordinal Technology board member. "The astonishing
performance of Nsort on the Origin2000 system will let users handle much
larger databases and will provide insight much more quickly."
The MinuteSort benchmark test establishes how much data can be sorted in
one minute. The data consists of 100-byte randomly generated records. The
benchmark was performed using Ordinal's highly scalable algorithm, Nsort,
on a 14-CPU Silicon Graphics Origin2000 server using 195MHz MIPS(R)
R10000(TM) processors, 7GB of memory and 49 disk drives. Nsort uses
multiple processors to quickly sort and merge data in memory and can handle
many different data types, summarize record fields and eliminate duplicate
records.
"The new Nsort algorithm is a quantum leap in sort performance," said Chris
Nyberg, president of Ordinal Technology Corp. "Nsort showcases the key
features of the Origin2000 system: scalable cc-NUMA [cache-coherent NUMA]
architecture, fast 64-bit RISC processors and a revolutionary I/O
subsystem. This unique combination was key to these record-shattering
results."
Origin2000 servers use Silicon Graphics Cellular IRIX(TM), an advanced
UNIX(R) system-based 64-bit operating system, which allows convenient
access to more than 4GB in one program. This is crucial for processing
extremely demanding jobs such as sorting. The Origin2000(TM) S2MP(TM)
(Scalable Shared-memory MultiProcessing) architecture easily adapts and
expands to an ever-changing business environment faced with growing sorting
needs.
Pricing and Availability
Nsort, bundled with Silicon Graphics Database Accelerator, is priced at
$1,000 (U.S. List) and will be available in June 1997 from Silicon Graphics
and its distributors worldwide.
SOURCE Silicon Graphics Inc.
/CONTACT: Diane Edises of Silicon Graphics, Inc., 415-933-8059, or
[email protected]/ (SGI)
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Silicon Graphics 64-Bit Origin Server Breaks 25,000 Transactions-Per-Minute
Mark Silicon Graphics and Informix Combine Forces to Outperform All Other
SMP Systems
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Date: Thursday, May 1, 1997
Source: PR Newswire
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 30 /PRNewswire/ via Individual Inc. --
Increasing its leadership position in scalable performance with Origin(TM)
enterprise servers, Silicon Graphics, Inc. (NYSE: SGI) today announced that
it has achieved a record-breaking Transaction Processing Performance
Council Benchmark C (TPC-C) with Informix software, surpassing all previous
results on single system symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) platforms. This
benchmark was also the first TPC-C result ever performed for a cache
coherent Non-Uniform Memory Access (ccNUMA) system.
Silicon Graphics attained 25309.2 transactions per minute (tpmC) on the
TPC-C at a price/performance of $139.04 per tpmC. This result, obtained by
running the INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server 7.3 parallel-processing database
on a Silicon Graphics(R) Origin2000(TM) enterprise server, establishes the
Origin server and Informix software combination as the highest-performance,
single-node on-line transaction processing (OLTP) solution in the industry.
"This TPC-C result demonstrates the extraordinary scalability of the Origin
server and its performance potential in the networked enterprise market,"
said Edward R. McCracken, chairman and chief executive officer of Silicon
Graphics. "The added value for customers is knowing that they can now
leverage the full power of the INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic Server with the
unmatched performance of Origin servers."
The TPC-C benchmark simulates a complete computing environment where a
population of terminal operators execute transactions against a database.
The benchmark is centered around transaction activities in an order-entry
environment. TPC-C involves a mix of five concurrent transactions of
different types and complexity executed either online or queued for
deferred execution. The database comprises nine types of records with a
wide range of record and population sizes.
Origin servers utilize the Silicon Graphics Scalable Shared-memory
MultiProcessing (S2MP(TM)) architecture, which uniquely provides high
performance and scalability through its CrayLink(TM) interconnect
technology. The unprecedented, seamless scalability of the S2MP
architecture addresses exponential data growth and rapidly evolving
business needs, allowing companies to scale computing systems to meet their
changing requirements.
"This outstanding performance result with the INFORMIX-OnLine Dynamic
Server and the enterprise Origin server once again demonstrates Informix
leadership in database performance," said Phil White, chief executive
officer for Informix. "Our strong alliance with Silicon Graphics has
uniquely enabled us to provide customers with joint solutions in OLTP, data
mining and data warehousing, as well as in Web and multimedia
applications."
The Silicon Graphics MIPS(R) R10000(TM) microprocessor architecture
supports superior system scalability and high performance for demanding
commercial applications. With features such as multiple outstanding memory
references, large external cache support, a versatile cache coherency
mechanism and built-in multiprocessing (MP) communications protocols,
R10000 is optimized for efficient MP configurations.
Pricing and Availability
Origin servers for the commercial market are available from Silicon
Graphics, OEMs, value-added resellers such as 1DIRECT and systems
integrators, all of which provide turnkey solutions and integrated
capabilities to meet the needs of the enterprise marketplace. Available
since December, Origin2000 systems start at a low entry price of $29,900
(U.S.). The system configuration hardware and software used in this
benchmark will be available no later than October 29, 1997. For more
information about TPC-C benchmarks and results, refer to the
http://www.tpc.org./.
SOURCE Silicon Graphics Inc.
/CONTACT: Diane Edises of Silicon Graphics Inc., 415-933-8059, or
[email protected]/ (SGI)
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