Hewlett-Packard Superdome Servers

Transcription

1 Jane Wright Product Report 19 August 2003 Hewlett-Packard Superdome Servers Summary HP Superdome servers are available with HP s own PA-RISC processors or Itanium 2 processors. The high-end Itanium 2-based model is the most powerful Itanium Processor Family (IPF) server available today. Table of Contents Overview Analysis Pricing Competitors Strengths Limitations Recommended Gartner Research Insight List Of Tables Table 1: Overview: HP 9000 Superdome (PA-RISC-based Models) Table 2: Overview: HP Integrity Superdome (Itanium 2-based Models) Table 3: High Availability: HP Superdome Table 4: Price List: HP Superdome Table 5: Competitive Comparison: HP Superdome List Of Figures Figure 1: Superdome Cell and I/O Backplane Gartner Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

2 Corporate Headquarters Hewlett-Packard Corp Hanover St. Palo Alto, CA 94304, U.S.A. Tel: Fax: Internet: Overview Hewlett-Packard (HP) Superdome servers were introduced in September 2000 as part of the HP 9000 family of 64-bit, RISC-based systems utilizing HP s Precision Architecture Reduced Instruction Set Computer (PA-RISC) processors. In June 2003, HP announced new Superdome models supporting Intel s Itanium 2 processors. At the same time, HP modified its naming structure: PA-RISC-based models are called HP 9000 Superdome, and Itanium 2-based models are called HP Integrity Superdome. All Superdome systems are supported by the HP-UX 11i operating system and the Integrity Superdome models also support Windows Server Datacenter Edition. Also, the Integrity models are expected to support Red Hat Linux soon. In fact, HP Integrity Superdome customers will be able to run all three (HP- UX, Windows and Linux) operating systems simultaneously on one system. To accomplish this, the various operating systems must run in separate hardware partitions. HP also plans to support OpenVMS in a hardware partition on the Integrity Superdome in Superdome systems are aimed at enterprises requiring large amounts of processing power. Typical applications include customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), electronic commerce and high-performance technical computing. HP envisions some customers deploying Superdome as a consolidation system, replacing a number of smaller Unix servers. There are six models in the Superdome family, as shown below: HP 9000 Superdome 16-way, supporting up to 16 PA-RISC 8700 or processors HP 9000 Superdome 32-way, supporting up to 32 PA-RISC 8700 or processors HP 9000 Superdome 64-way, supporting up to 64 PA-RISC 8700 or processors HP Integrity Superdome 16-way, supporting up to 16 Itanium 2 processors HP Integrity Superdome 32-way, supporting up to 32 Itanium 2 processors HP Integrity Superdome 64-way, supporting up to 64 Itanium 2 processors The PA-RISC 8700 processors operate at 750MHz; the PA-RISC processors operate at 875MHz. HP also continues to support PA-RISC 8600 processors operating at 552MHz on the HP 9000 Superdome models. The Itanium 2 processors (previously known by the code name Madison ) operate at 1.5GHz. Older Itanium 2 processors (such as those operating at 1.3GHz or 1.4GHz) are not supported. HP 9000 Superdome customers are able to mix PA-RISC processors of different speeds within a single Superdome system, so long as all of the processors in each hardware partition are identical. However, HP Integrity Superdome customers can not mix PA-RISC and Integrity processors in one system. 19 August

3 Architecture The building blocks for each Superdome system are the cells. The heart of the cell is the cell-controller chip, which provides the interconnection of processors, memory and I/O within the cell as well as a port for accessing other cells within the Superdome system. Each cell supports up to four processors in a symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) configuration. Each cell supports up to 32GB of memory, in 4GB increments, using 1GB synchronous dynamic RAMs (SDRAMs). Superdome packaging consists of one cabinet or two attached cabinets. Each cabinet can house up to eight cells for a maximum of 32 processors in one cabinet or 64 processors in two cabinets. Superdome uses a distributed memory (nonuniform memory access or NUMA) architecture, where the memory in all of the cells is addressable, and can be accessed, by all of the processors in the system. Up to four cells are connected by a crossbar switch. The nonblocking crossbar chips within the system are linked together, providing communications between all of the cells. Thus, Superdome systems represent a hybrid of SMP and NUMA technologies. Figure 1: Superdome Cell and I/O Backplane Source: Hewlett-Packard. Each cell may also be connected to an I/O subsystem, which consists of a 12-slot Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) or Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended (PCI-X) card cage, for access to external storage and communications networks. Internal disk storage is not supported on Superdome servers. Each of the twelve 64-bit PCI or PCI-X slots in the cell has its own PCI bus. A single system cabinet can house up to four I/O card cages. Since the single system cabinet can hold eight cells, an external I/O Expansion Cabinet with additional I/O card cages is used to provide I/O capabilities to the fifth through eighth cells in the cabinet. The I/O Expansion Cabinet can accommodate up to eight I/O card cages, which are required for 64-way Superdome with its full complement of I/O. The I/O Expansion 19 August

4 Cabinet enables the Superdome 32-way system to support a total of 96 PCI slots. Two I/O Expansion Cabinets enable the 64-way system to support a total of 192 PCI slots. An expansion cabinet is not needed on 16-way systems. High-Availability Features Superdome systems include a number of high-availability features, as would be expected in a system in this class. N+1, hot-pluggable power supplies and cooling fans are standard. With a future release of HP- UX, HP will add support for online replacement of processors and memory to Superdome systems. Online replacement of I/O cards is currently supported as long as the cards are identical; that is, a failed Fibre Channel card must be replaced with another, identical Fibre Channel card. Superdome includes chip-kill memory, which allows the server to keep running even with the loss of one complete memory chip. Each Superdome may include an optional test station, called the Support Management Station (SMS). This is a separate server that is used to test and run diagnostics on the system, either by the system administrator or by HP support personnel. HP s instant Capacity on Demand (icod) facility is supported on Superdome systems. This allows the administrator to activate an idle processor without rebooting the system. The customer pays a nominal charge for the idle processors until they are put to use. This makes Superdome systems easy to scale and also enhances availability, because a replacement processor can replace a failed one almost immediately. With Integrity Superdome servers, memory and cell boards may also be activated via the icod program. The icod and client agent running on a Superdome system reports its CPU status by sending an outbound to HP s service center. To achieve the highest degree of availability, multiple Superdome servers can be clustered using HP s MC/Serviceguard or a third-party clustering solution. HP s Business Continuity solution, which combines high availability, utility pricing and systems management for disaster, is the most extensive highavailability solution from HP. Service and Support When a customer orders a Superdome system, he or she must choose one of three packages of service and support offerings available from HP. These three levels are called Foundation, Proactive 24 and Critical Service. All Superdome customers are required to select one of these services, which are bundled with their hardware purchase. The service level chosen provides services for one year, after which the customer pays an annual renewal fee. Table 1: Overview: HP 9000 Superdome (PA-RISC-based Models) HP 9000 Superdome 16- Way HP 9000 Superdome 32-Way HP 9000 Superdome 64-Way Date First 4Q00 4Q00 4Q00 Available Product Type SMP/ccNUMA SMP/ccNUMA SMP/ccNUMA Processor/Memory Processors Supported/Pro cessor Speed PA- 8700/750MHz, PA /875MH z (1) PA-8700/750, PA- MHz8700+/875MHz (1) PA-8700/750MHz, PA /875NMHz (1) 19 August

5 Table 1: Overview: HP 9000 Superdome (PA-RISC-based Models) HP 9000 Superdome 16- Way HP 9000 Superdome 32-Way HP 9000 Superdome 64-Way Number of Processors per Cache On- Chip per Processor (bytes) Number of Cells per Max. Number of Hardware Partitions per Processor/Me mory Interconnect Min./Max. Memory (bytes) Peak Memory Bandwidth (bytes/second) Input/Output Bus Type Supported Number of Hot- Swappable I/O Slots per Peak I/O Bandwidth (bytes/second) Operating Price M 2.25M 2.25M (2) 16 (3) Cell controller Cell controller in cell; crossbar Cell controller in cell; crossbar in cell; mesh between cells mesh between cells crossbar mesh between cells 2G/16G per 2G/16G per cell; 2G/128G per 2G/16G per cell; 16G/256G per cell; 2G/64G system system per system 4G per cell; 4G per cell; 32G per system 4G per cell; 64G per system 16G per system PCI PCI PCI (2) (3) 2G per cell; 2G per cell; 16G per system (2) 2G per cell; 32G per system (3) 8G per system HP-UX 11i v1 HP-UX 11i v1 HP-UX 11i v1 Entry Price 173,680 (4) 259,820 (5) 856,119 (6) (US$) (1) 552MHz PA-8600 processors also supported. 19 August

6 Table 1: Overview: HP 9000 Superdome (PA-RISC-based Models) HP 9000 Superdome 16- Way HP 9000 Superdome 32-Way HP 9000 Superdome 64-Way (2) With I/O Expansion Cabinet. Without Expansion Cabinet, limited to four partitions, 48 PCI slots and 8 GB/s total I/O bandwidth. (3) With two I/O Expansion Cabinets. Without Expansion Cabinets, limited to eight partitions, 96 PCI slots and 16 GB/sec. Total I/O bandwidth. (4) Price for server includes one right-to-use CPU, three right-to-access CPUs, 2GB memory, HP-UX 11i v1 and Foundation Configuration support. (5) Price for server includes one right-to-use CPU, three right-to-access CPUs, 2GB memory, HP-UX 11I v1 and Foundation Configuration support. (6) Price for server includes eight right-to-use CPUs, 24 right-to-access CPUs, 16GB memory, HP-UX 11i v1 and Foundation Configuration support. Table 2: Overview: HP Integrity Superdome (Itanium 2-based Models) HP Integrity Superdome 16- Way HP Integrity Superdome 32-Way HP Integrity Superdome 64-Way Date First 3Q03 3Q03 3Q03 Available Product Type SMP/ccNUMA SMP/ccNUMA SMP/ccNUMA Processor/Memory Processors Supported/Pro cessor Speed Number of Processors per Cache On- Chip per Processor (bytes) Number of Cells per Max. Number of Hardware Partitions per Processor/Me mory Interconnect Itanium 2/1.5GHz Itanium 2/1.5GHz Itanium 2/1.5GHz M 6M 6M (1) 16 (2) Cell controller Cell controller in cell; crossbar Cell controller in cell; crossbar in cell; mesh between cells mesh between cells crossbar mesh between cells 19 August

7 Table 2: Overview: HP Integrity Superdome (Itanium 2-based Models) HP Integrity Superdome 16- Way HP Integrity Superdome 32-Way HP Integrity Superdome 64-Way Min./Max. Memory (bytes) 2G/32G per cell; 2G/128G per system 2G/32G per cell; 2G/256G per system 2G32G per cell; 2G/512G per system Peak Memory Bandwidth (bytes/second) 2G per cell; 64G per system 2G per cell; 128G per system 2 per cell; 256G per system Input/Output Bus Type Supported Max. Number of Hot- Swappable I/O Slots per Peak I/O Bandwidth (bytes/second) Operating Price PCI-X PCI-X PCI-X (1) 192 (2) 2G per cell; 2G per cell;16g per system (1) 2G per cell; 32G per system (2) 8G per system HP-UX 11i v2, HP-UX 11i v2, Windows Server HP-UX 11i v2, Windows Server Windows 2003 Datacenter Edition, Red Hat 2003 Datacenter Edition, Red Hat Server 2003 Linux Advanced Server Linux Advanced Server Datacenter Edition, Red Hat Linux Advanced Server Entry Price 204,775 (4) 290,915 (5) 962,450 (6) (US$) (3) (1) With I/O Expansion Cabinet. Without Expansion Cabinet, limited to four partitions, 48 PCI slots and 8 GB/s total I/O bandwidth. (2) With two I/O Expansion Cabinets. Without Expansion Cabinets, limited to eight partitions, 96 PCI slots and 16 GB/sec. I/O bandwidth per system. (3) Prices estimated by Gartner, Inc. (4) Price for server includes two right-to-use CPUs, 2GB memory, HP-UX 11i v2 and Foundation service. (5) Price for server includes two right-to-use CPUs, 2GB memory, HP-UX 11I v2 and Foundation service. (6) Price for server includes 16 right-to-use CPUs, 16GB memory, HP-UX 11i v2 and Foundation service. Table 3: High Availability: HP Superdome HP 9000 Superdome HP Integrity Superdome High Availability Online CPU Board Replacement No (1) No 19 August

8 Table 3: High Availability: HP Superdome HP 9000 Superdome HP Integrity Superdome High Availability Dynamic CPU Reconfiguration No (1) Yes (1) CPU, Memory Deallocation Yes Yes Activate Idle CPUs Standard Standard Online Replacement of Memory No (1) Yes, via memory icod Online Addition of Partitions Yes Yes Hot-Swappable I/O Boards Standard (2) Standard (2) Redundant, Hot-Swappable Power Standard Standard Redundant, Hot-Swappable Cooling Fans Standard Standard (1) Supported with virtual partitions. (2) Controllers can be removed and replaced only with identical ones. Analysis Superdome incorporates several concepts that may well represent the computing model of the future, including IPF processors, bundled services and a different concept of capacity-on-demand leading to a Utility computing model. IPF After years of successfully producing 32-bit processors for servers, Intel unveiled its first 64-bit server processor, Itanium, in The architecture of the Itanium is neither Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) nor RISC. Rather, Intel coined the name Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) to describe the high degree of support for parallelism designed into Itanium. That is, the processor is designed for applications that benefit from dividing the instructions, executing each portion separately but simultaneously (that is, in parallel), and then combining the results to complete the application task. Thus, Itanium is a 64-bit processor, like the many 64-bit RISC server processors available today, but differs from the RISC processors in that it has more features to support parallelism. Itanium s integrated level 3 cache and Machine Check Architecture (MCA) are responsible for much of the parallel execution. Servers based on the Itanium processor were developed mainly to prove the concept and test the design; they were never really intended for widespread adoption. Intel stated that the Itanium processor was just the first generation of its EPIC architecture and that all processors based on the EPIC architecture would be part of the IPF. The next processor in the IPF family, Itanium 2 (code name: McKinley), was introduced in It was refreshed in July 2003, (code name Madison) with the 1.5MHz processor clock speed and 1.5MB of cache. The Madison processor is currently supported on the Integrity Superdome. Services Superdome customers have a choice of three bundled service plans: Foundation, Proactive 24 and Critical Service. These services provide a simplified way for customers to select and choose services. The naming convention for these service packages is a little confusing, since the service packages are not in any way tied to the actual hardware configuration. A customer could order a minimal configuration and choose any of the three packages to go with it, for example. In any case, the Foundation package is the lowest of the three levels and includes assessment, design, pre-integration and project management services, in addition to what a customer would expect with standard hardware warranty one year of onsite support with same-day response. The Critical Services package contains the highest levels of support and the most services. 19 August

9 Capacity-on-Demand HP introduced the concept of (icod for the L-, N- and V-Class servers in 1999, with optional inactive processors that could be turned on quickly to increase system capacity. With Superdome, spare processors are built into the server; they are not optional. All 9000 Superdome cells are fully populated with four PA-RISC. There is then a right-to-use fee for each active processor and a right-to-access fee for each inactive processor. In the Itanium 2-based Integrity models, cell boards may be ordered with two or four Itanium 2 processors (not just one). If a cell board has two processors, an additional two may be field installed later. The spare processors can be activated for essentially the difference between the right-to-use and the right-to-access price. Previously, the icod program applied only to processors, but HP has extended icod capabilities to include memory and cell boards on the Integrity Superdome models. Pay-per-Use HP first introduced its Pay per Use in 2001 with a 36-month lease offering for its midrange and high-end servers. With this program, customers can dynamically activate and deactivate processors to satisfy workload requirements. HP metering software tracks the time the processors are active and s this information daily to HP. Customers are invoiced monthly for the average of daily averages or processors used. Pay per Use is intended for customers with wide swings in processing demands. Compared to a conventional lease for a system with all processors active, Pay per Use generally is less expensive if the average active processors are less than 50 percent of total processors available and more expensive if the average is over 50 percent. However, HP caps any premium to 5 percent over the cost of a conventional lease, and also offers a buyout option after 12 and 24 months for customers whose usage consistently exceeds 50 percent of the total available processors. HP added another temporary capacity option to its HP 9000 server line with 2002-Temporary instant Capacity of Demand or TiCoD. This allows customers to purchase inactive processors at a reduced cost and then buy a software key for 30 CPU-days of actual usage on the TiCoD engines. Operators can then dynamically activate these spare processors when needed to satisfy peak demands and turn them off when they are no longer required. HP metering software captures the activation time of the TiCoD processors down to the second. Unlike other vendors offering temporary processor activation, HP has no minimum active time for billing purposes. Partitioning With Superdome systems, one or more cells may be defined as an npartition (HP s term for hardwarebased partitions). The npartitions on Superdome are similar to the logical partition (LPAR) offered on IBM zseries and S/390 and PCM mainframes. However, like many other RISC/Unix partitioning solutions, HP npartitions do not match the high-availability and manageability capabilities of z/os- and OS/390-based systems. Specifically: Superdome npartitions lack the sophisticated job-scheduling and monitoring algorithms available under z/os. On their own, npartitions will not enable Superdome to achieve the same high levels of system use as z/os when running mixed workloads. Hardware partitioning on Superdome is at the cell level. All resources (processors, memory, I/O) on each cell must be in the same partition. With the z/os, portions of the CPUs, memory and I/O channels can be allocated to different LPARs. 19 August

10 Superdome does not support shared I/O as does z/os. HP also offers software-based Virtual Partitioning for the 9000 Superdome (that is, PA-RISC-based) models. Virtual partitions are defined at the CPU level and can be dynamically reconfigured. Virtual partitions can be used in combination with npartitions. Each virtual partition runs its own instance of the HP-UX. HP claims that the virtual partitions are completely isolated, such that a software or operating system failure in one will have no effect on the remaining partitions. Superdome does not yet support dynamic reconfiguration of npartitions; any such reconfiguration requires a reboot of the affected partitions. However, dynamic addition of npartitions is supported on Superdome. Why is dynamic reconfiguration of hardware partitions desirable? Dynamic reconfiguration makes it possible to isolate system boards and I/O for online replacement. Dynamic reconfiguration of processors and memory between partitions (that is, without reboot), along with hot-pluggable cell cards, will be supported in the next release of HP-UX 11I, which is expected in the 2004/2005 time frame. It will then be possible to reconfigure all partitions and replace all cell boards online without a system reboot. There are no plans for dynamic I/O reconfiguration processors in a hardware partition. Pricing List prices for Superdome systems are indicated in the table Price List: HP Superdome. Table 4: Price List: HP Superdome Description Price (US$) All Models 16-way Chassis 119, way Chassis 205,840 Add-on (from 32-way) for 64-way cabinet 218,435 HP 9000 Superdome Models Cell board with four inactive PA-8700 processors 10,080 Right-to-use PA-8700 processor 22,000 Right-to-access PA-8700 processor 4,000 2GB memory module 9,900 Right-to-access 2GB memory 1, slot PCI chassis (system cabinet and I/O expansion 14,805 unit) I/O Expansion Power and Utilities Cabinet 34,860 HP-UX for HP 9000 Superdome Models HP-UX 11i v1 Technical Environment License to Use One Processor HP-UX 11i v1 Foundation Environment License to Use One Processor HP-UX 11i v1 Enterprise Environment License to Use One Processor HP-UX 11i v1 Mission Critical Environment License to Use One Processor HP Integrity Superdome Models No charge No charge 5,355 9,486 Cell board with four inactive Itanium 2 processors 16,000 Right-to-use two Itanium 2 processors 40, August

11 Table 4: Price List: HP Superdome Description Price (US$) All Models Right-to-access two Itanium 2 processors 8,000 2GB memory module 9,900 4GB memory module 17, slot PCI-X Chassis 16,805 I/O Expansion Power and Utilities Cabinet 34,860 HP-UX for HP Integrity Superdome Models HP-UX 11i v2 Technical Environment License to Use One Processor HP-UX 11i v2 Foundation Environment License to Use One Processor HP-UX 11i v2 Enterprise Environment License to Use One Processor HP-UX 11i v2 Mission Critical Environment License to Use One Processor Prices effective July ,370 2,370 6,520 9,740 GSA Pricing Yes. Competitors The HP Superdome servers are high-end systems that compete primarily against the Sun Fire F15K and the IBM pseries 690. In Europe and Japan, the 9000 Superdome servers compete against the Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) PrimePower M2500. Although there are some Itanium 2-based servers currently available from other vendors, there are no other Itanium 2-based servers that support as many processors as the Integrity Superdome. Thus, the Integrity Superdome does not have any Itanium 2- based competition that competes directly in its target market at this time. Table 5: Competitive Comparison: HP Superdome HP 9000 Superdome 64- way HP Integrity Superdome Sun Fire F15K IBM pseries 690 FSC Primepower 2500 Max. Number of Processors Supported Processor Type Interconnect Max. Number of Partitions (1) Itanium UltraSPARC III SPARC64 GP 750MHz, PA- 1.05GHz, 1.2GHz 1.3GHz, 875MHz 1.7GHZ Crossbar mesh Crossbar mesh crossbar 14 6 crossbar Crossbar 16 (3) August

12 Table 5: Competitive Comparison: HP Superdome HP Integrity Superdome Sun Fire F15K IBM pseries 690 FSC Primepower 2500 HP 9000 Superdome 64- way Max. Memory (bytes) Max. Number of PCI Adapters Capacity-on- Demand Operating s Supported Performance 256G 256G 576G 512G 512G Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes HP-UX 11i v.1 HP-UX 11i v2, Solaris 8, 9 AIX 5L, 5.1, Solaris2,6,7,8 Windows 2003 Linux Server Datacenter Edition SPECint_rate (with MHz) Information not available 478 (with GHz SPECfp_rate (with 64 Information not 717 (with available 875MHz) 1.2GHz) TPC-C 423,414 (with 707,102 (with Information not 64 processors 64 processors TPC-H (3TB) 27,094 (with 64 Information not 28,948 (with 72 available 875MHz) 1.2GHz) (1) 106 CPUs with MaxCPU boards. (2) Binary-compatible with UltraSPARC II and UltraSPARC III. (3) Maximum 64 virtual partitions. Strengths High Scalability 339 (with GHz) 372 (with GHz) 763,898 (with 32 Information not available Information not available Information not available Information not available Information not available With support for up to 64 processors, HP s Superdome is one of the highest-performing, single commercial computing systems (excluding clusters and massively parallel systems). In addition, those HP processors can be installed before the customer needs them. As the customer s requirements grow, the idle processors can be activated, at which time the customer will be billed for the extra processors. Moreover, the 64-way Integrity Superdome is the largest IPF system available. Scoring over 700,000 tmpc s, it is currently the second highest performer in this transaction processing benchmark (behind IBM with the pseries 690 Turbo). Designed for Utility Computing Superdome servers provide customers with a high level of flexibility to use and pay for, just the amount of processing capacity that they need. HP offers both Capacity-on-Demand and Pay-per-Use programs with 19 August

13 Superdome servers. IBM and Sun do not offer such extensive programs on the pseries 690 or Sun Fire 15K, respectively. Mixed Operating Environment HP Integrity Superdome servers are the only systems at this time that support Unix, Windows and Linux operating systems all at the same time on one system. By using HP npartitions to ensure isolation of each operating environment from the others, an Integrity Superdome server may be a logical platform for a customer who wants to consolidate a number of varied servers onto one system. Bundled Services Packages HP has paid special attention to the services and support it wraps around each Superdome system. Two of its service and support packages (the Proactive 24 and the Critical Service package) contain a wealth of services and the appropriate level of support to meet the availability goal of the respective packages this is particularly relevant to large enterprise customers. While the individual elements of these packages are not unique other major vendors also offer various proactive services, such as assigned account teams HP s offerings stand out because HP has packaged together the pieces for various requirement levels and made them available as a standard offering, ordered with a single part number. This is unusual in a market where customers with very high availability requirements usually have to piece together a variety of service and support choices, possibly having to negotiate the prices and commitment levels with the vendor on an individual basis. Limitations Limited Partitioning and Deallocation Functionality HP s npartitions are limited in that they do not allow partitions to be dynamically reconfigured; reconfiguring npartitions requires a reboot. The inability to dynamically reconfigure hardware partitions means that some of the single-system availability features supported on Sun high-end systems, such as online replacement of system boards, are not available on Superdome. Superdome systems can, however, dynamically deallocate failed CPUs and then dynamically activate other icod-based CPUs to replace the deallocated ones if the customer has available icod CPUs in the system. No Support for Mixed Processor Configurations HP doesn t support a mixture of PA-RISC and Itanium 2 processors in one Superdome system. The ability to select just the right processors for each hardware partition would be especially appealing to previous HP customers who want to run current HP-UX applications on a family PA-RISC platform while running a new Windows or Linux application on an Itanium 2 platform. Recommended Gartner Research Itanium 2-based Servers: Perspective, DPRO Insight The HP Superdome server was designed to satisfy the performance, capacity and high-availability requirements of enterprise customers. Superdome includes features aimed primarily at addressing the issues of fast-growing customer organizations that cannot exist in the traditional IT environments bundled services to augment internal staffs and instantaneous capacity upgrades at prices that startup companies can afford. While benchmark ratings of the PA-RISC-based Superdome models are average, the performance of the high-end, Itanium 2-based Superdome model is quite competitive. Customers who are consolidating other servers onto an Integrity Superdome server will benefit from the ability to mix 19 August

14 operating systems; unfortunately, this flexibility is not matched with support for mixed PA-RISC and Itanium 2 processors in one system. 19 August