|
Subject: SUMMARY OF ALPHA VS HP, SUN ANNOUNCEMENTS 1
I N T E R O F F I C E M E M O R A N D U M
Date: 12-Nov-1992 11:53am EST
From: Peter Lowber
LOWBER.PETER
Dept: U.S. Competitive Team
Tel No: 297-6341
TO: See Below
Subject: SUMMARY OF ALPHA VS HP, SUN ANNOUNCEMENTS
This document is the result of a Team Effort. Many thanks to those
of you who helped put this together.
ALPHA AXP VERSUS THE COMPETITION:
SUMMARY ANALYSIS OF HP AND SUN ANNOUNCEMENTYS
November 11, 1992
This document represents the following people who drafted this summary
yesterday: Rhoda Phillips, Brush Bradley, Mike Greenfield, Tom
Walker, Tom Copeland, Dom Ricchetti, Dick Palm, Tom Henkel, Peter
Lowber. Thanks also to Andy Feit, Jim Becker, Bill Jackson, Anders
Overgaard, and Mitch Hall.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
There were no big surprises in either the HP or Sun announcements.
The following key points summarize our competitive positioning:
* Digital Has the Leadership Industry Architecture.
- As illustrated by Alpha AXP's leadership performance range,
price/performance, and choice of platforms (see the following
bullets).
- HP, IBM, and Sun must migrate to a 64-bit architecture in the
future.
- Marc Schulman, President of Technology Strategies Group, commented:
"In the future, Digital could come to dominate the 64-bit arena
just as Intel did with the PC industry. Like Intel, Digital is there
first." (Boston Globe, November 11, 1992).
* Digital Has the Industry's Leadership Price/Performance
- The DEC 3000 M400 has 50% better price/performance over HP's
flagship Mid-Range best price/performer (the Model 735).
- As Dataquest stated in their "Workstation Market Update Alert,"
November 10, 1992: "Digital has hit the sweet spot of the workstation
market with the Model 400. In this sweet spot, DEC has established a
new price/performance standard for the industry achieving almost half
the price/performance of the next closest competitor."
* Digital has the Highest Performance Range, From Desktop to Data
Center
- The DEC 10000 offers 184.1 SPECmark 89. At the high-end, HP's Data
Center Family is the HP 9000 800 Series, which offers a uniprocessor
performance maximum 136 SPECmark 89, and the new HP workstation offers
147 SPECmark 89.
- IDC states that "the HP 9000 800 Series currently trails in
performance and price/performance. Its MP models are very expensive
relative to Alpha."
* Digital is the Only Vendor Offering Customers Choice.
Dataquest pointed out a major HP shortcoming: "Another challenge for
HP is to provide a pervasive alternative desktop operating system to
UNIX in order to capture a portion of the business desktop market...
We believe that DEC will have the upper hand because it offers
multiple operating systems combined with its fast processing
capabilities. For users who want to stay with Windows, a DEC Alpha
system could be an excellent server option. For those who need a more
stable or more robust operating system, DEC has options available. In
contrast, HP and Sun currently offer only their respective versions of
UNIX." This reconfirms our message that freedom of choice is a
strategic advantage for Digital.
* Digital Offers Leadership Business Practices
IDC says that "Digital's Alpha AXP business practices are the finest
set of migration programs offered by any vendor. This includes both
Digital's hardware upgrade program from VAX and DECsystems to Alpha
AXP, as well as the Alpha ready software migration program. "These
business practices," concludes IDC, "represent significant savings."
WHAT DID HP ANNOUNCE?
* HP Performance was what was expected (even a little lower than
expected) but their pricing is high for their high-end workstations
(M735 and M755). The HP Mid-Range workstations (M715 and 725) are
unimpressive, but the low-end M715 is an area where we are vulnerable
until Pelican.
* HP Announced a complete replacement of the HP 9000 700 Series
Workstation Family, with new high-end graphics options, and an
impressive integrated multi-media product:
- Five workstations/servers SPEC89 Entry $ Avail
- Model 715/33 45 5,095 1/93
- Model 715/50 69 11,895 1/93
- Model 725/50 69 17,895 1/93
- Model 735 146.8 37,395 1/93
- Model 755 146.8 58,995 1/93
- New high-end graphics with the CRX 48Z 3D, along with
re-priced graphics solutions to compete with SGI, including 3D
graphics at the low-end.
--- NOTE: We will ship 3D graphics for Alpha AXP 1H 93, CY
for both VMS and OSF/1. And we'll have a broad range of graphics
options with Kubota.
- MPower, an integrated, multi-media-based visual
user environment.
--- NOTE: Consultants, especially IDC, are very enthusiastic
about this, which HP developed internally. However, D.H. Brown
notes that, while this is a good product, it is late, and it is
not leadership: "After a late start, HP's multimedia effort
should become fully competitive within the next six months"
with Sun and DEC. Brown points out that HP's product offers
an integrated solution, but Digital's allows third parties to
incorporate easily existing applications.
- A full one-year warranty with 3 Day (working days) On-Site
service for all HP 700 Models. There are also options for next
day and 4-HR on-site Service. HP had previously offered
90-day Warranty.
- "No-Penalty" board upgrades from current M720, M730, M750
to M735 and M755
--- NOTE: While their upgrade policy has improved, there IS a
penalty for M720 users (who are the vast majority of HP's 700
installed base. These users cannot go to the M725 but must
upgrade to the expensive M735).
- The M715 is Bounded and there are no board upgrades from
current low-end M705/710 users.
- Availability:
HP said at their press conference yesterday in Cambridge that
all their new workstations are available in January 1993.
Alpha AXP Workstations are shipping now. HP's ability to
deliver high-speed chips in volume on time is suspect
since they have had difficulties with high-end 700 delivery
in the past (66MHz workstations last year had a four month
lag-time), and more recently, delivering the 7100-chips
in the new 800 Series Models.
- There is no new I/O bus for the new HP 700 Workstations,
which are still only supported by the EISA bus-II (PC-bus).
HP admitted at their press conference yesterday that EISA bus
supports only 20MB/Second.
- The Model 715 and M735 are bounded. These Models have
only one EISA slot. For example, the new CRX-24, 24Z, and
48Z graphics boards in the low-end systems will block
one EISA slot (according to DH Brown's report on the
HP Announcement).
* HP/UX WEAKNESS VERSUS OSF/1
D.H. Brown ("HP Drives for Technical Share, November 10, 1992)
believes that HP's highly touted HP-UX 9.0 (UNIX operating system) has
some deficiencies: "HP/UX 9.0 still needs significant revision to
match the functionality AIX and OSF/1. HP has not yet given its
operating system full pre-emptibility or a first rate file system.
The underlying design of HP/UX also provides relatively weak support
for layered system and storage management functions." Infocorp has
also cited as an HP weakness HP/UX versus OSF/1.
WHAT DID SUN ANNOUNCE?
Sun announced an architecture, the SPARCenter 2000, to deliver a
20-Way SMP System by 1H 1994 CY. A two-eight way system will be
available in April, 93.
Sun also announced the SPARCclassic low-end $4,295 color (15")
workstation.
CHART OF NEW SUN PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS
SPARCclassic SPARCstation LX SPARCenter 2000
CPU TI microSPARC TI microSPARC TI Super Sparc
MHz 50 50 40
Col Graphics 15" 8-plane 16" GXplus NA
SPECmark 89 NA NA NA
SPECint 92 26.4 26.4 NA
SPECfp 92 21.0 21.0 NA
Entry $ 4,295 7,895 92,000
Avail 12/92 12/92 4/93 2-8-way
2H/93 16-way
1H, 94 20-way
SUN'S NEW SPACclassic: MARKET IMPACT
IDC does not believe that Sun's new low-end workstation will have much
impact. The SPARCclassic is very limited, supporting only a 15" color
monitor with few graphics options. Moreover, the SPARCclassic
requires the new Sun Solaris 2.1 operating system, which is not
compatible with current Sun OS applications. The new low-end replaces
the Sun IPC ("Instead of PC"), which did not support any color
monitor. Sun hopes to capture PC market share with the SPARCclassic,
but IDC comments that "workstations will not replace PC's." UNIX is
less than 3% of all desktops, which are dominated by DOS, Windows, and
Macintosh. Dataquest also cites the pain of DOS to UNIX migration.
The SPARCclassic is betwixt and between. It is not a PC and lacks the
capabilities that many workstation users want.
The SPARCclassic is non-discountable for quantities under 12.
The SPARCcenter 2000: IMPACT
Sun's SC 2000 announcement is marketing FUD. Sun announced no
perforance data, but made a TP claim of 500+ TPS based on LAB
estimates! Sun is going after the downsizing market with vapor-ware.
The SC 2000 is underwhelming in performance since it uses the 40MHz
chip that the SPARC-10 workstations (announced last May) are using,
except that these workstations aren't even shipping yet! They have
been delayed until 1Q 93.
The new SC 2000, which will undermine the SPARC 600MP Servers, also
uses the same I/O bus-- the S-bus-- at 80MB/second. This does not
compare with AXP's FutureBus+.
Finally, the SC 2000 requires Sun's new Solaris 2.1 Operating System
(SV R4-based), a major conversion for Sun's installed base (who have
Solaris 1.0 installed, which is based on Berkeley's UNIX).
SUN ISSUES:
* Sun has not shipped SMP (Symmetric Multiprocessing Systems).
With Solaris 2.1 just announced, Sun claims they will
begin to ship SMP capabilities. But this requires Sun's
installed base (based on Solaris 1.0) to migrate.
* Inferior Performance across their entire product line
- This includes all performance, but Floating Point Performance
is even weaker
* Failure to ship even the performance promised in the SPARC-10
Family
* Lagging Price/Performance
* Forced Migration/conversion from Solaris 1.0 to Solaris 2.1
- Solaris 2.1 was just announced and is just shipping.
* SPARCcenter 2000 is Vaporware
* Sun won't succeed with its eggs all-in-one basket
(UNIX will not replace PC-desktops)
* Sun does not have the sales, sales support, or services
capabilities to go after Data Center Downsizing Opportunities.
IMPACT ON IBM
Dataquest belives that the "biggest impact of these three
announcements will be on IBM. IBM (RS/6000) current models are
lacking in performance, and their price/performance is twice as high
as that of their competitions in all categories." This is certainly
true for Alpha AXP, which offers two-times better price/performance
with superior performance across the Family.
COMPETING AT THE LOW-END WORKSTATION MARKET: IMPACT
Alpha AXP will soon be very competitive at the low-end of the
workstation market. Pelican was program announced, with product
availability in March, 1993. For useable workstation configurations,
Digital will have superior performance and price/performance against
HP (the new HP workstations don't ship until January, 1993), Sun, and
IBM at the low-end of the workstation market.
In addition, we will have the fastest NT System in the industry
(Jensen) which will be announced when Microsoft announces NT. This
will support PC-industry standards, like EISA bus, and will be priced
under $10,000.
The following Chart shows some comparisons with Pelican.
LOW-END WORKSTATION COMPARISONS
AXP HP715 HP715 IBM220 SUN SUN
PELICAN /33 /50 LX SPARC10-30
SPECMARK 89 80E 45.9 69.0 27.7 NA NA
SPECint 92 NA 24.2 36.5 16.6 26.4 44.2
SPECfp 92 NA 45.0 72.1 26.1 21.0 52.9
BUS SPEED (MBPS) 50 33 33 40 80 80
BUS SPEED
-SUSTAINED 45 20 20 13-22 27 27
* 19"COL,16/400 NA 9,995 13,995 11,235 9,875 20,495
$/SPEC 89 NA 218 203 406 NA NA
COMPETING IN THE WORKSTATION AND SERVER MARKET
The following Charts show competitive comparisons for Alpha AXP
workstations and servers versus HP, IBM, and Sun. From desktop to
data center, Alpha AXP shows better price/performance against HP, with
superior price/performance against IBM and Sun. For balanced
performance, Alpha AXP will have additional performance advantages --
with faster buses, and more cache and memory.
ALPHA AXP: COMPETITIVE PRICE AND PERFORMANCE DATA
V1.0 November 6, 1992
V1.1 11/9/92
V1.2 11/11/92
V1.3 11/12/92
WORKSTATIONS: DESKTOP
DEC3000/400 HP725/735 IBM350 SUN10/41
SPECMARK 89 108.1 69/147 73.7 60E
SPECint 92 65.3 36.5/80 35.4 53.3
SPECfp 92 112.2 72.1/150.6 74.2 65.1
BUS SPEED (MBPS) 90 33 40 60
US PRICE* 18,795 20.5/37.4K 27,500 26,995
* 19"COL,32/400
$/SPEC 89 174 297/254 374 450
WORKSTATIONS: DESKSIDE
DEC3000/500 HP755 IBM580 SUN10/52
SPECMARK 89 121.5 147 126.2 109E-thruput
SPECint 92 74.3 80 59.1 58.1
SPECfp 92 126.0 150.6 124.7 71.4
BUS SPEED (MBPS) 100 33 80 80
US PRICE* 38,995 59K 71,630 41,995
* 19"COL,32/400
$/SPEC 89 321 401 568 385
SERVERS: DESKTOP
DEC3000/400 HP725/735 IBM350 SUN10/41
SPECMARK 89 108.1 69/147 73.7 60E
SPECint 92 65.3 36.5/80 35.4 53.3
SPECfp 92 112.2 72.1/150.6 74.2 65.1
BUS SPEED (MBPS) 90 33 40 60
US PRICE* 22,995 24.5/40K 27,900 29,395
* 64MB/1GB
$/SPEC 89 212 355/272 379 490
SERVERS: DESKSIDE
DEC3000/500 HP755 IBM580 SUN10/52
SPECMARK 89 121.5 147 126.2 109E-thruput
SPECint 92 74.3 80 59.1 58.1
SPECfp 92 125.1 150.6 124.7 71.4
BUS SPEED (MBPS) 100 33 80 80
US PRICE* 41,195 63K 64,450 39,995
* 64MB/1GB
$/SPEC 89 339 429 511 367
SERVERS: OFFICE
DEC4000 HP887S IBM980 SUN670/52
SPECMARK 89 133.6 136.1 126.3 109-thruput
SPECint 92 83.5 78.2 59.2 58.1
SPECfp 92 143.1 141.6 124.8 71.4
BUS SPEED (MBPS) 160 ?? 80 80
US PRICE* 72,750 92K 117,800 69,500
* 64MB/1GB
$/SPEC 89 545 677 935 638
SERVERS: DEPARTMENTAL
DEC7000/610 HP897S IBM980 SUN690/52
SPECMARK 89 167.4 136.1 126.3 109-thruput
SPECint 92 96.6 78.2 59.2 58.1
SPECfp 92 182.1 146.1 124.8 71.4
BUS SPEED (MBPS) 160 ?? 80 80
US PRICE* 155,000 112,000 117,800 98,000
* 64MB, 1GB
$/SPEC 89 926 823 933 899
SERVERS: DATA CENTER
DEC10000 HP890 IBM ES9000 SUN SC 2000
SPECMARK 89 184.1 130 NA NA
SPECint 92 106.9 NA NA NA
SPECfp 92 196.5 NA NA
SPECrate int 92 9,108 4,301 NA NA
(4-way)
SPECrate fp 92 17,187 4,685 NA NA
(4-way)
BUS SPEED (MBPS) 180 80
US PRICE* 303,000 340,000 >$5M
* 64MB, 1GB
$/SPEC 89 1,646 2,615
|