Conference ulysse::rdb_vms_competition

1233.0. "Have you seen this Oracle advertisement?" by BOUVS::OAKEY (Assume is *my* favorite acronym) Wed Feb 24 1993 00:41

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If you have seen any advertisements (particularily not in Australia)
which sound similar to the following please let Mike Brey (COOKIE::BREY,
DTN 522-3428) know.  If similar advertisements have appeared in other
countries, this would be additional information that can be provided to
the TPC.  This is an extract of a mail message sent to a TPC interest
list.  

While there is a possibility that this does violate the TPC Fair Use
Policies, no official decision would be made until the April TPC meeting
at the earliest.  Even if TPC finds Oracle in violation of the Fair Use
Policies, public disclosure of the violation can only be made by the TPC.




A Digital employee in Australia has brought to my attention an Oracle ad
in the 2/22/93 Canberra Times which I believe violates the TPC Fair Use
Policies.   The large ad is titled  ORACLE 7. NUMBER 1 in Database
Performance".  In the ad ORACLE compared their newest TPC-A result on the
HP 9000 Model 890 C/S system with six other TPC-A resuls.  Some of the
results had been withdrawn.

Summary of ORACLE Advertisement:

Name of Database     TPS       $/TPS        Systems        Submitted-Withdrawn 
                                                                   date
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Informix          173.2     $15,868     HP 870S/400       3/16/92 - 10/9/92
  
  Rdb               208.8      $9,172     VAX 6640 c/s      7/8/92  - 11/9/92

  Allbase           145.0     $12,963     HP 3000 992/100   9/9/92  - 11/23/92

  DMS               272.5     $43,190     Unisys A16-61E    5/15/91

  ORACLE            710.4      $8,258     HP 9000 890 c/s   2/3/93

  TIP/FCSS          228.5     $28,053     Unisys 2200/462   4/15/92

  Sybase            183.3      $8,686     Sequent S2000/250 9/14/91   
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Current results were available for the three withdrawn results.  ORACLE
could have used the following:

  Informix          153.13     $9,135     HP 9000 S800 H50  12/8/92

  Rdb               208.8      $8,574     VAX 6640 c/s      11/9/92     

  Allbase           150.6      $8,879     HP 3000 977       10/23/92

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I believe the Oracle ad violates the following TPC Fair Use Policies:

7.5.1 (b) It is Unfair Use for publicity to:

          (3) Use TPC results, from whatever source, unless the relevant
	      Full Disclosure Report is on file with the TPC
	      Administrator.

	 (12) Refer to a withdrawn result without specifically stating
	      that the result is withdrawn and no longer represents an
              official TPC result.

In addition, the ad only specifies the name of the database, the "tps", and
"cost/tps".   It does not specify the name of the systems (e.g., VAX 6000
Model 640 C/S) or the date of the results (e.g., TPC results as of
February 12, 1993).   It does not even indicate if they are TPC-A or TPC-B
results.  Although I don't see any specific TPC policy that requires this
information to be published in advertisements, I would like to recommend
that the policies be modified to require it.

Finally, the ad says that the results were "audited by the independent
Transaction Processing Council."  As we know, the TPC does not "audit"
results and we are the Transaction Processing Performance Council.

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