X86Vs minicomputer performance comparison (1)

X86 systems originated from the 8086 chipset, and the main processor of the chipset is made by Intel and AMD. Later, more and more manufacturers applied the chip to desktops, laptops, and servers. In today's enterprise server market, a few vendors account for the vast majority of the market share. Currently, mainstream x86 servers on the market include:

1. IBM x Series servers

2. HP Proliant DL/ML and BL Server

3. NEC Express server

4. Dell PowerEdge

5. Sun (Oracle) Sun Fire and Netra

UNIX is an authentication for operating systems such as AIX, Solaris, and HP-UX, which are oriented to hardware based on the RISC instruction set. UNIX operating systems and hardware are usually developed by the same manufacturer. Major manufacturers and products of UNIX systems include:

1. IBM's POWER series uses POWER6 and POWER7 chips to run AIX.

2. HP's Integrity series uses the Itanium (anteng) processor jointly developed by HP and INTEL to run HP-UX.

3. The Oracle-SUN system runs Solaris with a iSCSI chip.

Since the Solaris operating system has been transplanted to the x86 platform, SUN's definition is somewhat vague. In fact, SUN is still different from x86 and the iSCSI system based on the RISC instruction set, and is used as an enterprise-level system in the iSCSI.

The situation of UNIX systems in the server market

Considering the market by system scale, the low-end market is dominated by x86 systems, while the high-end market is dominated by mainframes. The two are flooded with UNIX and x86 systems.

With the improvement of the performance and reliability of the x86 system, the comparison between UNIX and x86 in the mid-end market is finally promoted. If you need a brand new system and do not need to worry about porting the existing environment, you will be dazzled. If you plan to support 500 to 1000 users, you can consider x86 or UNIX systems in terms of extended and extended architectures, rack servers, and blade-based systems.

If you have already created a system for hardware updates, it may be a bit difficult to choose. If the key business of the system is at risk during migration, the advantages of the platform change will become confusing. The costs of retraining existing maintenance personnel are also worth considering.

Priority of the system target

You need to determine the priority of your goals before selecting them. The priority of the system target gradually decreases from the business target to the server role in the business. The online transaction processing server is the key to order processing and invoicing, and requires high reliability. The data warehouse system allows one-day downtime, but requires high performance to process complex reports within the specified time. The goals and priorities you need to consider include:

1. Performance Target-response time, batch run time, and user support quantity.

2. Reliability-Can downtime be minimized?

3. scalability-How big is the system scalable?

4. Availability-Do systems need to be centralized? How long does it take me to maintain it?

5. total cost of ownership (TCO)-What is the budget, and whether the hardware cycle is 3 or 5 years?

6. OS that tends to support-is it good for enterprises to implement standardization?

The selection of UNIX and x86 is limited in some cases.

1. Microsoft applications cannot run on UNIX systems (except a few applications can run on HP-UX Windows 2008 virtual machines ).

2. Support from software vendors-some software vendors have a limited list of hardware and OS support.

3. Some companies have OS policies to minimize the number of supported platforms.

　Reliability of UNIX systems

Both the hardware and OS of UNIX systems come from the same vendor. The objective is to provide the most reliable hardware and the most stable and scalable OS. For component failures, hardware in UNIX systems provides high-level protection. For example, a UNIX System of IBM and HP can ensure that the operating system is not interrupted even if a processor fails. UNIX system vendors spend a lot of time testing third-party compatibility with hardware and operating systems to ensure maximum system stability. X86 systems tend to rely on third-party vendors to test different hardware and operating systems. This means that the components supporting UNIX systems are more expensive than those of x86 systems.