Since I missed Oracle Openworld 2011 I wasn’t able to attend the keynotes. I have, however, taken the time to view each of them in playback from video archives. After viewing the keynote delivered by Oracle Corporation’s CEO Larry Ellison, I felt compelled to read some additional literature relevant to the IBM-smashing claims made by Mr. Ellison during his segment focused on Oracle SPARC SuperCluster. A simple Google search brought me to http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/features/sun-beats-ibm-501074.html where I see the following graphic:
It has been a long time since my last installment in the Little Things Doth Crabby Make series so it’s high time I do so. Here is what I see at the “sun-beats-ibm” webpage:
In case the fine-print disclaimer is too small, here’s what I see (bold font added by me):
Sources for Comparison of Systems:
Systems cost based on server, software and comparable storage list prices (without discounts), as well as third party research. Performance comparison based on Oracle internal testing together with publicly available information about IBM Power 795 TurboCore system with highest processor speed commercially available (4.25 GHz) as of Sept 28, 2011
That makes me crabby. I shouldn’t have to squint, should I?
Kevin Closson's Blog: Platforms, Databases and Storage 
So, you mean they compared CPU speed based on some numbers on the paper? Yeah, sounds like Oracle 😉
Andreas,
Your guess is as good as mine, but guessing shouldn’t be needed when titans face off.
As if similar undated IBM claims like “POWER7 processor-based systems, deliver unprecedented performance and scalability for 4-socket and 8-socket systems with over 2.5x the performance per core of similar configurations of HP Itanium and Sun SPARC Enterprise systems and nearly 1.5 times better than published results…” are any better… and they do have some mo-betta references under the Oracle tab… nearly a year old.
Marketing fluff is perfectly legal, and perfectly fine. If anyone actually lets it influence multi-$M decisions, well, the titans are getting something off, and it isn’t face. It’s all just entertainment.
I thought the directing on the videos was a bit off, there were times Larry would refer to a slide and they would just show his face. But I only lasted halfway through, other more shiny things awaited. Like blogs about the keynote.