Swap value: a new standard for measuring servers

Sun has launched a set of Sun Fire servers that use the new UltraSPARC IV + processor, with five times the performance of the previous UltraSPARC processor. Sun released the UltraSPARC T1 processor named "Niagara", which uses the patented CoolThreads chip multithreading technology to become the world's first green and economical processor. Sun announced that all Java Enterprise Systems, Sun's various developer tools, and other software are provided free of charge, and these software and Solaris OS are integrated into Solaris Enterprise System, make it a comprehensive and open basic software platform. Sun released a new type of Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 Servers Based on CoolThreads technology, which unveiled the high-performance "Green Economy" server product line. Sun puts forward a new server measurement standard-SWaP value, which is the industry's first criterion for judging the efficacy of Data Center Server systems, it comprehensively considers space occupation, power consumption, and performance.

"Traditional servers are mainly performance-oriented. However, Sun communicated a lot with the data center directors and found that although companies attach great importance to server performance, they also pay close attention to factors other than server performance. In fact, 80% of enterprise data centers face problems such as heat dissipation, energy consumption, and space occupied ." Mr Raju Penumatcha, vice president of Sun, said: "The 'SWAp value' shows a clear image for the data center directors, it can measure the space usage, power consumption, and performance of the data center, so as to compare which server is the best. Sun believes that measuring servers in these three aspects is a correct direction and has been recognized by partners ." The SWaP value is currently the only industry standard server performance metric.

Sun's formula is simple, that is, SWaP value = performance/(occupied space × power consumption). The larger the ratio, the better the overall server metrics. Therefore, any customer can calculate this SWaP value and compare the system from different vendors with the obtained result. The occupied space refers to the space occupied by a server. It can be measured by the height of the rack unit of the system. This information can be found on the website of the supplier. Power wattage refers to the server's power dissipation value, which can be obtained from the actual benchmark performance test data or from the Planning Guide of the vendor's website. The value is measured in watt. Performance refers to the performance or throughput of a server, which can be obtained from any industry standard performance test or ISV benchmark performance test.

In fact, Sun began to use the SWaP value as a key design point for its next generation server a few years ago, and the result of this was the advent of Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers. Through SWaP analysis, it is concluded that the performance of Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers has increased by five times compared with Sun Fire's previous systems. In some cases, the power consumption is only 1/5 of the previous power consumption, the space is only 1/4 of the original, and the performance is the same or even higher. Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers are suitable for various fields such as Web, database, and application processing. These new systems are designed to reduce power consumption, cooling costs, and space occupation, it can save customers millions of dollars.

Sun also released two new comprehensive protection plans. When a customer chooses a Sun Fire T1000 or T2000 system, they acquire not only one server system, but also Solaris 10. In addition, you can also choose to purchase a comprehensive protection plan, which is not limited to some basic damage/repair and Quality Assurance projects. Sun's comprehensive protection plan includes basic services and recommendation services, and provides transparent three-year pricing so that customers can budget their IT funds and better manage the funds.