| Contact: Gail Snider
Director of Market Relations
415/506-5128
Ken Rudin
Senior Product Manager, Parallel Systems
415/506-6410
ORACLE BREAKS 1,000 TRANSACTION PER SECOND BARRIER
ORACLE on a Parallel Computer Runs Faster than the Largest Mainframe
at a Cost Lower than on a PC
Redwood Shores, Calif., July 22, 1991 -- Oracle Corporation today announced
that it achieved a transaction throughput of 1,073 transactions per second
(tps) at a cost of $2,482 per transaction with its ORACLE database management
system (DBMS) running on a parallel computer. This is more than twice the
performance of the largest mainframe computer, at a cost per transaction that
is less than on a personal computer.
"In the computer industry, everyone speaks of the client/server
revolution. From our vantage point, the 'revolution' was taking place
primarily on the client side of this equation. In the 1980s we saw a one
hundred-fold increase in performance and price/performance on small desktop
computers, while in comparison, large-scale mainframe computers improved very
slowly," said Lawrence J. Ellison, Oracle president.
"As a result, the cost per transaction on a mainframe is now 20 times
the cost of a transaction on a PC. Some databases can be moved to PCs and
other low-cost servers; however, many databases are simply too large to run on
anything other than an expensive mainframe computer. Today, we are announcing
an alternative to mainframes for large database applications. ORACLE on a
parallel computer can run larger databases, more users and more transactions
per second than any mainframe -- for 95 percent less money, one-twentieth the
cost. And I believe this is just the beginning of the server revolution."
Industry Standard Benchmark
ORACLE's performance and price/performance records were achieved
running the industry standard Transaction Processing Council Benchmark B
(TPC-B). The benchmark test was run on an nCUBE parallel computer. This is
the first time a database management system has ever exceeded 425 tps running
the standard TPC-B benchmark.
The previous record was set earlier this year with the introduction of
the parallel version of the ORACLE DBMS running on a cluster of four VAX
computers. That record, of 425 tps at a cost of $19,000 per tps, compares
favorably with the current mainframe performance record of 419 tps at a cost of
approximately $50,000 per tps. By running more than 1,000 tps on a parallel
computer, ORACLE has exceeded mainframe performance by more than factor of two,
and reduced cost by a factor of 20 to less than $2,500 per tps.
The First Commercial Use of Massively Parallel Hardware
Traditional business and scientific computers, such as those
manufactured by IBM and Cray, increase their computational capacity by
combining a few very fast and very expensive processors. In contrast,
massively parallel computers increase computational capacity by combining
dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of inexpensive microprocessors into a
single computer. The nCUBE, for example, can be configured with up to 8,192
microcomputers and 128 gigabytes of main memory.
Version 6.2 of the ORACLE DBMS software, called the ORACLE Parallel
Server, is specifically designed to run on computers built with large numbers
of processors, such as the nCUBE, Meiko and Parsys systems.
Kenneth Rudin, Oracle's senior product manager for Parallel Systems,
said, "We are pioneering the commercial use of massively parallel computers
here at Oracle Corporation. We used only 64 processors to hit 1,000 tpsB.
When it comes to the performance of ORACLE on massively parallel machines, we
have just scratched the surface."
Benchmark Configuration and Certification
The TPC-B benchmark, audited by the consulting firm of Codd and Date,
was run on a 64-processor nCUBE 2 Model nCDB-1000 with an additional 48 channel
processors controlling 205 disk drives. The test simulated the transaction
activities of a major bank with more than 1,000 branches and in excess of 100
million individual accounts. In addition to performance measurements, the
TPC-B benchmark also included validation tests for data integrity, consistency
and failure recovery -- critical elements in OLTP applications.
Availability
ORACLE will be released to a limited number of users on massively
parallel supercomputers from nCUBE, Meiko and Parsys later this summer.
About Oracle
Oracle Corporation, headquartered in Redwood Shores, Calif., is the
largest supplier of DBMS software and the third largest software and services
company in the world.
Oracle develops and markets an integrated line of software products for
database management, computer-aided systems engineering (CASE), applications
development, decision support and office automation, as well as families of
financial and human resource applications. Oracle products are available on
PCs, minicomputers and mainframes, and ORACLE is the first and only open
relational database to run on massively parallel supercomputers.
The company offers its products, along with related consulting,
education and support services, in 92 countries around the world. Oracle is a
publicly held corporation whose shares are traded on NASDAQ/NMS with the ticker
symbol ORCL.
For further information about Oracle, call Oracle corporate
headquarters at 415/506-7000, or write to Oracle Corporation, 500 Oracle
Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065.
# # #
ORACLE is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation.
ORACLE Parallel Server is a trademark of Oracle Corporation.
nCUBE is a trademark of nCUBE Corporation.
VAX is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.
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