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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MikeyT who wrote (79849)	3/22/2000 11:08:00 PM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Great article in Forbes on CPQ servers by: jcdiedforme 3/22/00 10:43 pm Msg: 147702 of 147704 Compaq sets a new world record for processing performance. Sun and IBM immediately cry foul. Speed Demons By Daniel Lyons Next page > For more than a decade enginneers have imagined a day when computers running cheap Intel processors would outgun the million-dollar big iron from IBM, Sun Microsystems and the like. It just happened. In February a 96-chip server from Compaq Computer shattered the world speed record that IBM had set only a few months before with a big Unix-based computer that costs almost twice as much. Intel-based machines have long bested big boxes in price performance. Now they have taken the lead in raw power. The response from IBM and Sun? An orchestrated yawn, and suggestions that Compaq cheated--or at least bent the rules--and produced little more than a cheap publicity stunt. "I'm disappointed in Compaq," says David Gelardi, director of benchmarking at IBM. The milestone is in part about bragging rights, but it also portends possible turmoil in the computer business. In the early 1990s IBM's mainframe business was blindsided by cheaper Unix-based machines from Sun, Hewlett-Packard and others. Now those Unix boxes, including IBM's own entries, are themselves threatened by a swarm of companies pushing Intel-based servers. These low-priced machines will have special appeal for companies hungry for horsepower to run Web sites. Built for speed, the Compaq system lashes together 96 high-power chips in a cluster of 12 muscle-bound servers to perform 227,079 transactions per minute. A transaction might be a data-entry clerk at J. Crew inputting a ten-item sales order. IBM's short-lived record holder, an RS/6000 S 80 server, clocked in at a mere 135,815 tpm. This comparison comes not from Compaq, but from the independent Transaction Processing Performance Council. That puts Compaq ahead by 67% in speed. Better yet, the Compaq machine costs $4.3 million, versus $7.1 million for the IBM machine and $13.1 million for a comparable Unix machine from Sun Microsystems. Next page > back to top Read more: By Daniel Lyons OutFront From April 3, 2000 Issue