Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens Computers PRIMEPOWER Enterprise Servers

There are three PRIMEPOWER Enterprise servers: the PRIMEPOWER 800, 1000, and 2000. They are binary-compatible with Sun's SPARC/Solaris platforms and equivalent to Sun's E10000 in terms of product positioning. But where Sun has one E10000 model, Fujitsu Siemens has three, including a high-end model capable of supporting up to 128 CPUs. Like the Sun E10000, the PRIMEPOWER servers have a crossbar architecture and SMP-like scaling characteristics. The real value of all those processors, however, is to support multiple partitions. Dynamic System Domains are supported through the Solaris operating system's Dynamic Reconfiguration feature, and the Fujitsu Siemens servers match the E10000's fault isolation and concurrent maintenance features. One extra that the E10000 does not have, however, is the ability to support processors with different clock speeds on the same system.

Overview
PRIMEPOWER System Architecture
Analysis
Pricing
Competitors
Strengths
Limitations
Insight

Fujitsu Limited

Tokyo, Japan

Internet: www.fujitsu.com

Fujitsu Siemens Computers

Siemenstrasse 21

D-61352 Bad Homburg, Germany

Internet: www.fujitsu-siemens.com

Fujitsu Technology Solutions

1250 East Arques Avenue

Sunnyvale, California 94088-3470, U.S.A.

Internet: www.fujitsu-technology.com

Fujitsu's SPARC-based Unix servers were originally known as the GP7000. When Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) introduced them into Europe in November 1999, they became known as the GP7000F. In May 2000, Fujitsu and FSC decided on PRIMEPOWER as the global brand name, and by November 2000, Fujitsu had established a new North American subsidiary, Fujitsu Technology Solutions, Inc., to market the Unix products in the U.S.

FSC is a joint 50/50 venture established by the merger of Fujitsu's and Siemens' European computer operations. It officially came into being on 1 October 1999. FSC is based in Europe and has an OEM contract with Fujitsu Ltd. of Japan to sell the PRIMEPOWER servers.

The PRIMEPOWER "Enterprise" servers are part of a wide-ranging Unix product line that includes one-, two-, four-, and eight-way servers in rack and tower form factors. The Enterprise models form the high end of the product line, however, and support up to 128 processors in a single server.

There are three PRIMEPOWER Enterprise servers: the 800, the 1000, and the 2000. They are high-end Unix servers intended for mission-critical applications; back-end database servers for enterprise resource planning (ERP), online transaction processing (OLTP), and data warehousing; infrastructure servers for Internet and applications service providers; and consolidation servers designed to run multiple application workloads on the same server. The PRIMEPOWER 800 supports up to 16 CPUs, the 1000 up to 32 CPUs, and the 2000 up to 128 CPUs. They use SPARC64 GP processors and run the Sun Solaris operating system. They are binary-compatible with Sun's UltraSPARC II- and UltraSPARC III-based servers.

FSC selected the PRIMEPOWER servers to replace its RM series Unix servers, which use MIPS RISC processors and run the Reliant Unix operating system. In addition to selling the PRIMEPOWER servers in Europe, FSC has ported various items of system software from the Reliant Unix operating system to the Solaris operating environment. These include the Reliant clustering and management software. FSC also offers programs to existing RM server customers to help them port applications to the new platform.

The system design for all three Enterprise servers is the same: the main server building block is the system board. Each system board contains up to four SPARC64 GP processors, up to 16GB of memory (using 1GB DIMMs), and six 64-bit PCI buses, each with one PCI I/O slot. These components are interconnected by a Level 1 (L1) crossbar, with a maximum throughput of 2.88GB/second.

The L1 crossbar is internal to the system boards. A second-level crossbar (L2 crossbar) is then used to interconnect the L1 crossbars of up to 32 system boards. The L2 crossbar boards and system boards are mounted on a backplane at the rear of each server cabinet (see figure "PRIMEPOWER Enterprise Server System Architecture"). The maximum throughput for the Level 2 crossbar is 57.6GB/second. The conductors that connect the L1 and L2 crossbars are wired in equal length point-to-point connections to ensure uniform latencies across the interconnects. The crossbar operates synchronously at 225MHz.

The SPARC64 GP processors used in the PRIMEPOWER 800, 1000, and 2000 were developed by HAL Computer Systems, Inc., which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd. The processors are of HAL's own design, but adhere to the SPARC v.9 Level 2 specifications established by SPARC International, the body that oversees compliance with the SPARC architecture. Sun and Fujitsu are not surprisingly the two main contributors to SPARC International. Sun's UltraSPARC III processors also comply with SPARC v.9.

The PRIMEPOWER Enterprise servers are available with 450MHz and 563MHz versions of the 64-bit SPARC64 GP. A 675MHz version is planned for the end of 2001. That compares with Sun's UltraSPARC III, which has debuted at 750MHz in the Sun Fire "Midframe" servers and which is scheduled to go to 1.5+GHz according to Sun's roadmap. Future Gigaherz versions of SPARC64 will not be compatible with the existing PRIMEPOWER servers, however, and Fujitsu will introduce a new system design for its next-generation processors in 2002.

One unusual feature is that processors of mixed speeds can be supported in the same PRIMEPOWER server, provided they are running in different system partitions or domains. All processors on a system board must be of the same clock speed, and all system boards in the same partition must use processors of the same clock speed. It means, however, that one partition can support 450MHz processors and another can support faster 563MHz processors, for example. This makes it easier to upgrade systems a partition at a time (rolling upgrades). Investments in processing power can also be concentrated where they are needed.

High availability was a primary concern in the design of the PRIMEPOWER Enterprise servers. Fujitsu has made extensive use of error checking and correction (ECC) code throughout the system board and interconnects, going beyond its normal use for system memory and system buses. ECC protection is included on memory, Level 1 (on-chip) and Level 2 (off-chip) caches, and all data paths, including Level 1 and 2 crossbars and PCI buses. In addition to ECC, Fujitsu has also included distributed memory modules and memory scrubbing. Distributed memory modules are designed to withstand failures of an SDRAM module. Each byte of data is distributed across eight different storage modules, one bit to each module. If an SDRAM module fails, although it affects several memory locations, the single-bit errors caused should be correctable.

All the usual redundant hot-swap features, such as power supplies, fans, and internal disks, are included. PCI buses and controllers can be configured for redundancy (I/O Multipathing).

A system-independent service processor, known as the System Control Feature (SCF), monitors and manages the system. It too can be configured with a redundant board. The internal network that connects the SCF to boards and other monitored components is duplicated, and the connection to the system console can be duplicated. The PRIMEPOWER 800, 1000, and 2000 also have a second redundant system clock, but unlike Sun's midrange Sun Fire servers, they do not have redundant backplanes, and this remains a single (if unlikely) point of failure. A table indicating the key redundant components and high-availability (HA) features is shown below. (See "High-Availability Features: Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens Computers PRIMEPOWER Enterprise Servers (800,1000, and 2000)" table.)

The PRIMEPOWER servers are robust and scalable systems, but their main claim to fame is the fact that they are binary-compatible with Sun's SPARC/Solaris platforms. This makes them a potential alternative to the Sun platforms, if a little less well known than their Sun counterparts.

The PRIMEPOWER servers are evaluated in Gartner's Application Server Evaluation Model (ASEM). Clients should note that our evaluations are based on the PRIMEPOWER servers as marketed by Fujitsu Siemens Computers. FSC has been selling the product for longer than Fujitsu Technology Solutions, and we consequently had more data available for FSC when these evaluations were compiled in the first quarter of 2001.

As the tables below show, the Fujitsu technology matches Sun's in almost all respects. In fact, since updating the ASEM tables in the first quarter of 2001, 128-way configurations of the PRIMEPOWER 2000 and faster 563MHz processors have become available. The PRIMEPOWER Enterprise servers are currently the most scalable SMP-like Unix servers available and in March 2001 posted the highest SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) and TPC-C benchmark ratings at the time. In the light of these achievements, the PRIMEPOWER servers now deserve to be rated ahead of Sun's Enterprise-class servers on System Performance, though such assessments tend to be transitory as vendors vie to achieve the highest benchmark scores. Note, however, that the PRIMEPOWER's 220,000+ tpmC benchmark was achieved with a 48-processor configuration. It is unlikely that customers would ever need that many processors for a single Unix application, and Gartner does not believe that the Solaris operating system scales efficiently for OLTP applications much beyond 24 processors. The value in the PRIMEPOWERs' scalability has more to do with the ability to support multiple scalable partitions rather than one partition with a huge number of processors.

The PRIMEPOWER servers also score slightly better than Sun on Availability (both Single-System and Multisystem). The higher ranking on Multisystem Availability is primarily thanks to FSC's Reliant Cluster and monitoring software, but Fujitsu has also gone further with hot-swap functionality and end-to-end ECC, for example. The PRIMEPOWER servers have ECC on all data paths: L1 cache, L2 cache, main memory, and system buses on the system board. Sun's UltraSPARC II system boards only have parity checking on L2 caches. Sun's high-end servers have been prone to a caching error that has caused servers to crash without warning. There have been no reports of such crashes with the PRIMEPOWER servers.

The PRIMEPOWER servers are lower ranked than Sun's on OS Partitioning, however, and this is attributable to the fact that the Dynamic Reconfiguration capabilities available on the Sun E10000 only became available on the PRIMEPOWER Enterprise Servers with the availability of support in Solaris 8 from April 2001. Support for Solaris 8 was also delayed until FSC completed testing of the Reliant Clusters on the operating system. Customers and ISVs will need time to qualify their applications on the new OS, however. Solaris 8 was in any case only in place at a small number of Sun customers by the end of the first quarter of 2001. This is still a relatively new OS and unlikely to become "mainstream" for most existing Solaris customers before the end of 2001.

One key technological advantage that the PRIMEPOWER servers have over Sun's Enterprise servers is that the system has been designed to provide more bandwidth and flexibility than Sun's E10000 architecture. Fujitsu has benefited from coming later to the market with its high-end systems than Sun. The crossbar interconnect at the heart of the PRIMEPOWER servers is scalable up to a peak aggregate bandwidth of 57.6GB/second on the Model 2000 and has enough bandwidth for a further processor enhancement beyond the 563MHz, which already surpasses Sun's UltraSPARC II processors.

The PRIMEPOWER servers are expected to get 675MHz processors in the first half of 2002 time frame. That compares with possibly one more performance tweak to just under 500MHz for the UltraSPARC II processors in the Sun E10000 servers. Sun's main strategy, however, will be to go to UltraSPARC III and a completely new system design. That new system design will leapfrog the PRIMEPOWERs in that it will support a newer, faster generation of processors (UltraSPARC III) with a newer, faster system interconnect and design. The downside is that it means a "forklift" upgrade for existing E10000s. The UltraSPARC III-based architecture will also only be supported in Solaris 8 and above.

One other advantage that the PRIMEPOWERs have over the Sun E10000 is the ability to support processors of different clock speeds in different partitions. This means customers can do rolling hardware upgrades within the box, preserving their investment, and dedicating processing power where it is most needed. The Sun E10000 does not have such a capability, although the Sun Fire midrange servers, announced in March 2001, can support processors with different clock speeds, and the future E10000 replacement will also likely have the capability.

The problem with Sun's existing UltraSPARC II midrange (E3500-E6500) and high-end (E10000) servers is that they are nearing the end of their product life cycles. They were designed for the UltraSPARC II architecture and are not upgradable to Sun's next-generation UltraSPARC III processors. Sun is having to introduce a whole new product line and system design to support UltraSPARC III, and there have been numerous delays to that introduction. The UltraSPARC III-based Sun Fire midrange servers were finally announced in March 2001 and offer much stronger competition to the midrange PRIMEPOWERs. They currently only scale to 24 CPUs and four partitions, however.

Although the Sun Fire 4800 (12-way) and 6800 (24-way) could be seen as competitors to the PRIMEPOWER 800, the PRIMEPOWER is very clearly the entry point to the enterprise-class product line, and forms part of a continuum of products, which includes the 1000 and 2000. We understand, however, that Sun's new enterprise-class "StarCat" servers will share technology with the midrange Sun Fire servers to provide a similar continuum of scalability. One point that existing Sun customers should note is that the new Sun Fire servers do not support versions of Solaris prior to version 8. The PRIMEPOWER servers, on the other hand, support Solaris 2.6 and 7, making them a more viable and upgradable option for existing Solaris customers who yet have not moved to Solaris 8.

Meanwhile, the UltraSPARC III-based replacement for Sun's E10000 has already been delayed by several months and is not expected to become generally available until late 2001. Consequently, in Gartner's recent Server Evaluation Models, Fujitsu and FSC get a higher rating than Sun on the vendor's ability to Deliver on Promises.

Clearly the PRIMEPOWER servers benefit from the high levels of interest and independent software vendor (ISV) enthusiasm in the Solaris operating environment (see the "Application Server Evaluation Model: Market Momentum Scores (Weighted)" table below). In the ASEM model, ISV Enthusiasm was marked down for FSC, however, because some ISVs who supported its MIPS-based Reliant Unix servers have yet to port applications to the SPARC/Solaris environment. Binary-compatibility with the most popular Unix platform on the market today, however, means that the PRIMEPOWER servers share the top ranking for Application Choice with Sun.

Where the PRIMEPOWER servers do less well than Sun is in areas that relate to their visibility in the market. Channel Enthusiasm and Gartner Client "Radar" (the PRIMEPOWER's visibility among clients) are inevitably lower than Sun's. These servers are new to the U.S. and still relatively new to Europe. Fujitsu Technology Solutions is still building up a presence in the U.S. Fujitsu was already present in the North American Unix market thanks to its Amdahl subsidiary, but Amdahl has also been one of Sun's biggest resellers. Amdahl continues to sell Sun servers, while the newly established Fujitsu Technology Solutions, Inc. takes on responsibility for the PRIMEPOWER servers in the United States.

It is on the Business Practices scores, however, where FSC in particular notches up some significant wins against Sun in the ASEM tables (see the "Application Server Evaluation Model: Business Practice Scores (Weighted)" table below). Gartner ranked Fujitsu Siemens higher than Sun on Support, Negotiation Opportunity, and Professional Services. It is important to note here that the ratings in this section are specifically based on the performance of the FSC business in Europe, rather than Fujitsu worldwide. It is too early to judge Fujitsu Technology Solutions' capabilities in the North American market, although service and support are handled by Fujitsu's Amdahl IT Services subsidiary, which does have a good track record.

In Europe, FSC has earned a good reputation for service and support, particularly through its professional services operations. Professional services are not one of Sun's strengths either in Europe or worldwide. Similarly, Sun has also had less success with its some of its support programs than other Unix vendors. By the first quarter of 2001 (one year after the service's introduction), Sun has only around 250 customers worldwide for its Sun Remote Services monitoring and preemptive diagnostics services. Its geographic reach is also limited compared with vendors such as IBM, HP, and Compaq, though the same criticism can inevitably be made about Fujitsu and FSC.

Yes.

The PRIMEPOWER servers are intended to offer a binary-compatible alternative to Sun's SPARC/Solaris servers. They are not as well known as Sun's product line so they do not appear on Gartner clients' "radar" as much as Sun's servers. Nevertheless, wherever clients are interested in the Sun servers, they could consider Fujitsu or FSC as an alternative or second supplier.

The PRIMEPOWER 800, 1000, and 2000 are described by Fujitsu and FSC as their "enterprise" models. But there is a difference in design philosophy between Sun's E10000 and the PRIMEPOWER servers. Where Sun has a single high-end model ranging in scalability from an eight-way entry-level Capacity-on-Demand (COD) configuration to a full 64-way configuration, there are three PRIMEPOWER models: four- to 16-way, six- to 32-way, and eight- to 64-/128-way. The low-end models 800/1000 can therefore also be considered as competitors to the Sun Fire 4800/6800 midrange servers.

The smallest Sun E10000 configuration currently is an eight-way COD configuration. The server is configured with eight active CPUs and a further 12 CPUs that the customer can pay to activate at a later date. The maximum E10000 configuration has 64 CPUs and 96GB of memory, and supports 16 system partitions (System Domains). Current processors (as of second-quarter 2001) are 400MHz UltraSPARC II with 8MB of second-level cache.

The E10000's strengths are:

• Leads the game in Unix partitioning; established and in use at a number of customers.
• ISV enthusiasm for SPARC/Solaris.
• Global Unix market leader— Sun is entirely focused on SPARC/Solaris; its strategy is clear and commitment to the platform unwavering.

The E10000's challenges are:

• Confidence in the system's reliability dented by the infamous e-cache failures.
• Originally introduced in 1997, the E10000 is due for replacement; a new enterprise-class server based around Sun's UltraSPARC III processors is expected in late 2001.

The E10000 set the standard for enterprise-class Unix, but more recent servers are starting to catch up and surpass it in certain areas.

Announced in March 2001, the Sun Fire midrange servers include the 3800 (two- to eight-way), the 4800 and 4810 (two- to 12-way), and the 6800 (two- to 24-way). Of these, the 6800 is the most likely target for the PRIMEPOWER 800/1000.

The Sun Fire servers employ Sun's UltraSPARC III processors and are not supported in versions of the Sun operating system prior to Solaris 8 release 4/01. Their key features are:

• New system architecture with extended levels of redundancy and higher throughput.
• Introduction of E10000-like features such as dynamic partitioning, hot CPU upgrades, and concurrent maintenance/reconfiguration.
• Improved performance from UltraSPARC III.
• Very modular construction and compact packaging.

The main issues with the Sun Fire systems are:

• The E10000-like features— Dynamic System Domains, Dynamic Reconfiguration, hot CPU upgrades, etc.—are not initially supported in the OS.
• Sun's ramp-up of the servers is also likely to be slow and drawn out— the initial Sun Blade workstations and Sun Fire two-way servers announced in September 2000 still had long delivery times six months after their initial announcement.
• Sun has initially priced entry configurations quite high and is not offering COD— no doubt because it cannot meet potential demand.

Not all Sun customers will be ready to move to the Sun Fires, however, because the systems do not support versions of the operating system prior to Solaris 8. Sun will therefore continue to keep the UltraSPARC II-based midrange servers (E3500-E6500) on its price list until the second half of 2002 for those customers who want support for Solaris 2.5.1, 2.6, and 7. It is these customers who perhaps have the most reason to consider the PRIMEPOWERs. The 800 not only supports Solaris 2.6 and 7, but has a more scalable architecture than the aging E5500 and E6500 models, as well as offering better RAS functionality and support for system partitions.

Like the PRIMEPOWER Enterprise servers, there are three Superdome models: an "entry-level" 16-way model, a 32-way, and a 64-way. All three models use HP's PA-8600 RISC processors, with support for PA-8700 expected in the second half of 2001. The Superdome servers are also designed to be able to support the Itanium processors that have been designed by HP and Intel. Itanium support will begin with the second-generation processors, code-named McKinley.

The Superdome servers support partitions, but HP does not currently offer equivalent functionality to Solaris's Dynamic System Domains and Dynamic Reconfiguration. HP will add software-based virtual partitions (vPars) to the HP-UX 11i operating system in a forthcoming release. These will give administrators the capability to tailor partitions to specific workloads on the fly, but they will not enable hot-swap cells (system boards) or concurrent maintenance.

As befits an enterprise-class server, Superdome features a high level of HA features and functions. Hot-swap and hot-add cells will not be supported, however, until a future OS release. In the meantime, HP recognizes that proactive service and support are essential to maintaining well run, available servers, and each server is sold with one of three support packages as standard.

Superdome's strengths are:

• Powerful system architecture.
• Strong service and support offering.
• Planned support for multiple operating systems, including Windows, when Itanium processors become available.

Superdome's challenges are:

• Hard partitions cannot be dynamically reconfigured and do not support how-swap/hot-add CPU capability.
• Does not support mixed processors— different cells with different processors. All cells must have the same sort of processor
• HP has fallen behind Sun and IBM on Gartner's client "Radar."

IBM has improved its position immensely compared to where it was in the Unix market during the 1990s. It has established an "enterprise-class" SMP server line, and its RS/6000 S80 and pSeries 680 models have boosted IBM from being the performance laggard to the performance leader.

The e-server pSeries 680 is IBM's current high-end Unix SMP server. It supports up to 24 of IBM's advanced Silicon-on-Insulator processors. Unlike the Fujitsu/FSC, Sun, and HP servers, it does not support partitions. IBM's AIX operating system supports integral Workload Management (WLM) software, which can enable multiple applications and users to share the 680's resources and capacity according to predefined priorities (like Sun's Solaris Resource Manager), but it does not offer the watertight security of system partitions.

The 680's strengths are:

• Follows on from the RS/6000 S80, which achieved very strong sales for a high-end system (1,000 units in a year).
• Excellent OLTP performance and scalability— achieves similar SMP performance to the PRIMEPOWER 2000, but with half the processors.
• Maturity and dependability of the AIX operating system.

The 680's challenges are:

• Lack of partitioning.
• Activation of COD processors requires a reboot.

SPARC/Solaris is currently the leading Unix in terms of ISV enthusiasm. The PRIMEPOWER servers are binary-compatible with the SPARC/Solaris applications binary interface (ABI) and so can run any of the 12,000+ Solaris applications currently available.

The PRIMEPOWER Enterprise servers support all of the partitioning, Dynamic Reconfiguration, and hot-swap capabilities of Sun's E10000. Faults and errors in one partition do not affect operations running in others. Partitions can be dynamically reconfigured in response to changing business needs, and system boards can be hot-swapped for improved serviceability or upgradability. The Fujitsu/FSC servers have an additional advantage in that processors with different clock speeds can be supported in different partitions. Upgrades can consequently be managed more easily: while some partitions are upgraded with new processors, other partitions can continue to run with the older CPUs. Sun's new Sun Fire midrange servers have a similar capability, but the E10000 does not.

Gartner does not consider Sun's Sun Cluster and Management Center options to be as robust or as fully functional as the competition's. Neither does Fujitsu or FSC. Fujitsu Siemens Computers' Reliant Cluster and Management software is, however, very mature and well rated. The same goes for the Veritas-based solution that Fujitsu Technology Solutions is marketing in North America.

Neither Fujitsu nor FSC will try to sell their own storage management products in the way that Sun does. Both vendors have a strategic relationship with EMC, the leading enterprise storage vendor. Though expensive, EMC's storage products are rated higher than Sun's in Gartner's evaluations. Sun's StorEdge products are generally considered inferior to the competitions, but Sun is of course keen to maximize the spin-off business for its storage subsidiary. Even so, Sun will not hesitate to partner with EMC if that is what the customer wants— and most do.

The PRIMEPOWER is new to North America, and Fujitsu Technology Solutions is still in the process of trying to get itself and its product noticed. FSC, the European PRIMEPOWER vendor, is better known in its market, but the PRIMEPOWER is also relatively new and still building a portfolio of references.

By the start of the second quarter of 2001, COD options for the PRIMEPOWER servers were still under development. FSC has subsequently produced details of its Enhanced Server Capacity on Demand options (see the "Overview: Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens Computers PRIMEPOWER Enterprise Servers" table), while Fujitsu Technology Solutions is preparing one.

Although the PRIMEPOWER Enterprise servers support up to 128 CPUs and 15 partitions, are they really more manageable than racks of compact, discrete midrange servers? Maximum scalability with the PRIMEPOWER servers and Solaris 8 OS appears to come at around 48 processors. We certainly do not believe the system can scale to 128 CPUs for a single image, even if any customer should want such a behemoth. We believe that few customers are likely to achieve efficient scalability with even 48 processors on typical OLTP applications and would therefore advise a maximum of 24 processors per partition with Solaris 8.

The justification for large configurations, however, is that they can be partitioned into multiple smaller servers: perhaps a cluster of database partitions and one or more application server partitions. But each partition runs its own operating system instance and software stack and has to be managed with the same tools as individual, discrete servers. There is no advantage in terms of size or footprint— the PRIMEPOWER Enterprise servers come in up to four very large cabinets; racks of compact servers offering 1U of rack height per CPU may even take up less space and require less power for an equivalent configuration.

Then there is the issue of rolling OS upgrades: Solaris does not support rolling OS upgrades between partitions. With individual clustered servers, however, the user can take servers down one by one to update the OS. On a single, large, partitioned server, all the partitions have to be taken down and restarted with the new operating system instance. If there is a problem with the new OS, it is a problem for all partitions, and they will all have to come down again.

Although it is the benchmark leader on TPC-C, the figures belie the fact that the benchmarks were carried out on the Fujitsu SymfoWare database software, rather than the market leading Oracle 8i database software. Had Fujitsu used Oracle, as IBM did for its pSeries 680 benchmarks and HP for its Superdome, we suspect that its price/performance result would have been far less competitive. Because of the way it is priced, the Oracle software would be around 87 percent more expensive on the 48-way PRIMEPOWER server than on the 24-way IBM server. The IBM pSeries 680 achieves very similar performance to the Fujitsu PRIMEPOWER 2000, but with only 24 CPUs and 96GB of memory compared with the PRIMEPOWER's 48 CPUs and 128GB of memory.

The PRIMEPOWERs' chief attribute is that they are binary-compatible with Sun's SPARC/Solaris platforms. This makes the PRIMEPOWER Enterprise models very viable alternatives to Sun's Enterprise 10000 (E10000). They have a scalable architecture, though for most customers the benefit of this is for application consolidation, and they offer better investment protection than the Sun E10000. They can support enhanced processors alongside older processors in the same server, and there will be a further SPARC64 GP processor upgrade in 2002. In contrast, Sun promises an all-new high-end replacement for the E10000 during 2001, and it will require Solaris 8. Stability and maturity will thus be the PRIMEPOWERs' key advantages over Sun's forthcoming StarCat.