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Fujitsu Achieves High Performance With PRIMEPOWER Servers

Fujitsu Computer Systems Corp announced enhancements to its fifth-generation SPARC64 processor. Exploiting the company's long-term processor development experience, the Fujitsu SPARC64 V processor is fabricated using 90-nanometer (nm) process technology, a first for UNIX based servers, and operates at 1.89 GHz. The enhancements deliver a significant performance boost averaging 35 percent faster than previous generations.

The introduction of SPARC64 V processor comes on the heels of two major enterprise-focused announcements from Fujitsu: the global expansion of its TRIOLE strategy for optimized IT on May 26, and its partnership with Sun Microsystems Inc on June 1.

"The improvements to the SPARC64 V processor for PRIMEPOWER servers allow Fujitsu to continue delivering high reliability and groundbreaking performance within mission-critical environments," said Richard McCormack, vice president of product and solutions marketing at Fujitsu Computer Systems. "Its arrival demonstrates our consistent technology leadership in the open systems marketplace and moves us even closer to the realization of solutions for the Fujitsu and Sun Microsystems Advance Product Line collaboration."

Like previous generations, the 1.89 GHz SPARC64 V processor is establishing world records for performance in the industry standard SPECjbb 2000 (Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation Java Business Benchmark 2000) benchmark in 8-way, 16-way and 32-way configurations. In SPECjbb 2000 testing, the new processor delivered performance improvements of 35 to 42 percent over its predecessor in its respective configurations. A PRIMEPOWER 1500 server installed with 32 x 1.89 GHz SPARC64 V processors achieved the highest efficiency record in its class running Java based business applications. The system processed an unprecedented 663,133 transactions per second.

The Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) has depended on PRIMEPOWER servers and the SPARC64 processor for years. As the world's largest options marketplace, CBOE needed a high-performance solution for its complex trading system.

"In handling more than 51 percent of all the options trading in the United States and 91 percent of the index options trading, we needed a platform robust and reliable enough to handle the millions of transactions processed each day on CBOEdirect, CBOE's Hybrid Trading System," said Curt Schumacher, chief technology officer of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. "We found Fujitsu PRIMEPOWER servers give us all the computing power and bandwidth needed to support our ever-expanding needs. We look forward to seeing the added performance benefits the 1.89 GHz SPARC64 V processor will provide."

In addition to increased clock speed and 90-nm fabrication technology, the new SPARC64 V processor will incorporate 3 MB on-chip second-level cache, another element that allows PRIMEPOWER servers to achieve maximized throughput and uptime. PRIMEPOWER servers featuring the high-speed SPARC64 V processor will be available in the fourth quarter of 2004. Fujitsu plans to use the new processor in its PRIMEPOWER 650, 850, 900 and 1500 server models. The new 90-nm processor can also be mixed and matched with previous generations of the SPARC64 processor in the same system for the PRIMEPOWER 900, 1500 and 2500 models.