-IBM p690 Is World's Most Popular High End Server; Takes Top Spot With Half The Processors Of HP Superdome-

ARMONK, N.Y., -- February 17, 2004 -- Using half the number of chips of the competition, IBM today announced that an IBM eServer® p690 server system with 32 POWER4+™ microprocessors running on DB2® Universal Database™ v8.1 has shattered the world record for computing processing power. The 32-way IBM p690 server outperformed a more expensive HP Itanium 2-based Superdome system with 64 processors running an Oracle database, soaring past the million mark to process 1,025,486 transactions per minute.

The p690's record-setting performance was achieved on the independent Transaction Processing Performance Council's TPC-C benchmark.

In addition to its unprecedented transactional prowess, the POWER-based p690 system, with a price/performance of $5.43/tpmC, also proved to be a much better value than the HP Itanium 2-based Superdome system which has a price/performance of $8.33/tpmC.

According to the TPC-C benchmark, an IBM eServer p690® with 32 POWER4+ microprocessors, running the AIX5L™ v5.2 UNIX operating system and DB2 Universal Database 8.1 with IBM TotalStorage® FAStT900 storage hardware processed 1,025,486 transactions per minute (tpm/C) at a cost of $5.43/tpmC (1). IBM's 32-way p690 beat HP's 64-way Itanium 2-based Superdome system running an Oracle database, which used twice the number of processors. On that system, HP had previously recorded 1,008,144 tpmC with a price/performance of $8.33/tpmC (2).

IBM's results of 1,025,486 tpmC tops all other non-clustered results previously announced by any vendor and demonstrates a clear price/performance advantage for business customers.

The IBM eServer p690 is the most popular high-end UNIX server on the market. According to independent research firm IDC, over the last eight quarters, IBM has shipped more high-end eServer p690 systems than either HP's high-end Superdome UNIX systems or Sun's high-end UNIX systems (3). With more than 4,000 systems sold since its introduction, the POWER-based IBM eServer p690 is the foundation of on demand computing infrastructures in industries around the globe.

Having been termed the first 'server on a chip,' IBM's POWER microprocessor architecture is the industry's leading solution for 64-bit applications. IBM's POWER architecture offers customers open, innovative technology solutions through either the AIX, OS/400® or Linux operating systems that complement the growing demand for 64-bit applications. In addition to being at the core of powerful, industry leading IBM eServers, the POWER microprocessor technology can be found in Nintendo game consoles, Apple computers, and some of the world's most powerful supercomputers and storage systems.

More information on IBM eServer systems, IBM TotalStorage systems and IBM Software is available at: http://www.ibm.com/eserver, http://www.storage.ibm.com, and http://www.software.ibm.com/data.

The latest TPC-C results are available at http://www.tpc.org.

About IBM IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com.

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Footnotes: (1) Results current as of 2/17/04. 32-way 1.9 GHz POWER4+ IBM p690 delivered 1,025,486 tpmC @ $5.43/tpmC, configuration planned to be available 8/16/04.

(2) 64-way 1.5 GHz Itanium 2 HP Superdome with Oracle 10G result is 1,008,144 tpmC @ $8.33/tpmC, planned to be available 4/14/04.

(3) All information according to IDC quarterly tracking of UNIX system units shipped. Over the last eight quarters, the IBM eServer p690 has shipped 3,498 total units during that time. Over the last eight quarters, the HP Superdome has shipped 3,136 units. Over the last eight quarters, the SunFire 15K has shipped 1,545 total while the SunFire 12K has shipped 704 units during that time. IDC 3Q'03 Quarterly Tracker, Units Shipped.

IBM, the e-business logo, eServer, pSeries, AIX, AIX5L, TotalStorage, FAStT, POWER, PowerPC, POWER4, POWER4+, and DB2 are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Itanium is a trademark of Intel Corporation.

Oracle is a trademark of Oracle Corporation.

All other company/product names and service marks may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries licensed exclusively through The Open Group.

TPC Benchmark is a trademark of the TPC.

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