IBM eServer 595 sets new db-processing record.

IBM executives told a meeting of industry analysts in Austin, Texas, that IBM's Unix eServer 595 computer running an IBM's own Power 5 line of computer chips has set a new database-processing record that surpasses by nearly three times the previous performance record set by HP for its heavy-duty Superdome computers. IBM said its eServer 595 in the widely recognized TPC test of banking, insurance and retail transactions performed 3.21 million transactions per minute, or nearly three times the 1.2 million transactions of HP's fastest tested machine.

A year ago, HP's Integrity rx5670 server running on Intel Itanium chips had broken through the 1 million transaction per minute barrier, clocking 1.18 million transactions on the TPC computer performance test.

The computer industry has long used benchmark tests in an endless game of corporate marketing one-upmanship in the commercial computer market. The world's biggest companies and government agencies pay $1 million or more for such machines.

But Adalio Sanchez, IBM general manager for the pSeries, said that IBM's latest servers had significantly outperformed HP and Sun machines in 50 separate industry benchmark tests that reflect a wide range of real-world business conditions.

Forrester's Day agreed that this test marked a milestone. "This particular benchmark test represents a breakthrough," said an industry analyst for Forrester Research who tracks the benchmark race among computer makers.

HP acknowledged IBM's current success, but said the fight was not over. "Just as HP has broken performance records on the HP Superdome, and will again, IBM has made a significant achievement with this benchmark," HP spokesman Kathy Sowards said. "We are in a two-horse race in the server business."

Sun declined to comment other than to say it no longer recognizes the TPC benchmark as a real-world computing test. It has not participated in this general-purpose benchmark test since 2001.

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