Chapter 4. Introducing the Series 980/300 and 980/400 Mainframe power at your command High-end performance range extended by 60% The Series 980/300 and 980/400 multiprocessors deliver mainframe-class performance Extending the Series 980 high-end performance range by over 60%, the Series 980/300 and 980/400 offer customers with Series 95x, 960 and low-end 980 systems greater investment protection with a broader performance board upgrade path. More powerful than 85% of installed IBM mainframes! The new Series 980 systems are comparable in performance to the midrange and high-end of ES/9000 air-cooled mainframes and the low-end range of ES/9000 water-cooled mainframes In fact, the Series 980 systems are more powerful than 85% of installed IBM mainframes: the 43xx family, the 30xx systems, and ES/9000 models. Investment protection to next generation high-end platform Customers purchasing Series 980 systems today are assured of protecting their HP 3000 investment Attractive Series 980 return credits will be offered toward the next generation higher performance system Details are outlined in the CSY Hotline, subject = S980ROI. Availability and MPE/iX requirements Since the announcement of the Series 980/300 in August at San Diego Interex, customers have already placed special orders for the 980/300 Orderable and available in December, the Series 980/300 requires MPE/iX 3.0 along with a special patch that is shipped with it The 980/400 is orderable as of January 1 and is shipping with standard availability of 12 to 16 weeks. (Figure 4.1) Series 980 performance Excellent performance for large system environments A new benchmark for the data center A new benchmark has been developed to compare HP 3000 system performance in typical data center environments To reflect the broad range of typical data center applications, about 60% of the benchmark workload is online and is based on a third party, database intensive application using VPLUS and TurboIMAGE The remaining workload is batch, with multiple applications running against multiple databases simultaneously to better represent an actual data center work environment. Results demonstrate the high performance of the Series 980 Based on this benchmark, the Series 980/400 provides 1.6 times more performance than the Series 980/200, and 2.6 times more performance than the Series 980/100 The Series 980 platform also continues to significantly outperform the midrange 9x7 systems, in addition to providing higher configurability. Additional high-end performance benchmarks in FY92 TPC-A should continue to be used to compare midrange systems against the competition in simple online transaction environments TPC-C is expected to be endorsed as a follow-on benchmark in FY92, and is more representative of mixed online environments with more complex transactions High-end TPC-C results will be published in FY92 in addition to this new data center benchmark. Furthermore, the HP 3000 Mainframe Batch Performance Benchmark (P/N 5091-2553E) illustrates Series 980 performance greater than an IBM 3090 180J for a large batch order processing customer application More benchmarks comparing the HP 3000 to IBM mainframes in batch and mixed batch/online environments will be available throughout FY92. (Figure 4.2: Data center benchmark results) Competitive system pricing The clear leader in mainframe-class price/performance In addition to introducing the Series 980/300 and 980/400, the Series 980/100 and 980/200 prices have also been reviewed to maintain competitiveness in mainframe downsizing and new high-end sales opportunities Pricing information is reported in the 12/1 issue of Computer News. Mainframe-class systems at a fraction of the cost The 980 systems are clear leaders in mainframe-class price/performance Comparing competitive cost of ownerships, the Series 980 is half the cost of DEC VAX 9000 mainframes and a third of the cost of IBM ES/9000 systems An up-to-date competitive report is now available on the CSY Hotline to provide you with current cost of ownership comparisons Refer to subject = POSITION. A clear case to target mainframe replacements & offloads Cost savings is a key motivation for mainframe replacements and offloading The large monthly maintenance cost of the IBM systems shown below illustrate the high cost of classical mainframes The Series 980 systems provide a mainframe alternative, delivering mainframe-class performance with midrange cost of ownership Refer to the HP Mainframe Alternative Program Resource Guide (P/N 5091-3085E) for more details. (Figure 4.3: Monthly cost comparisons) Positioning of Series 980 versus 9x7 systems Large system solution versus high-performing midrange solution Series 980 designed to fit large data center environments The Series 980 was designed to support mainframe applications and large data structures Due to it's high expandability, larger networking configurability, high performance, and support for multiprocessing, the Series 980 is the best solution for large data processing environments. Series 980 versus Series 9x7 New customers requiring the attributes of a large system solution or performance greater than Series 977 should be sized to the Series 980 systems New Series 980 prices offer an affordable high-end solution In addition, attractive return credits toward the next generation platform will be offered to Series 980 systems purchased today Customers not requiring the attributes of a large system solution can be sized to the Series 9x7 systems. Refer to the charts below and on the next page for more information on the system which best meets your customer needs. Series 980 Series 9x7 ----------- ----------- Maximum performance 6.4 2.9 (relative to 947) Multiprocessing support up to 4-way n/a Maximum connected users 1250* 850 Maximum memory 1 Gbyte 384 Mbyte Maximum HP-IB 12 2 Maximum HP-FL 12 3 Maximum PSI 8 5 Maximum disks >300 Gbyte 66 Gbyte - with Disk Mirroring 150 Gbyte 16 Gbyte Virtual addressing 64-bit 48-bit * As of release 4.0 in mid 1992 (Figure 4.4: Where to sell the Series 980) New high availability disk products Mainframe class disks to complement mainframe class systems New 2.7 and 5.4 Gbyte disks Four new HP-FL disk products, based on industry leading disk array technology, are being added to HP's line of disks: two standard disk arrays, 2.7 Gbytes and 5.4 Gbytes, and two high availability disk arrays, 2.7 Gbytes and 5.4 Gbytes. Industry leading disk array technology A disk array is a flexible group of small disk drives controlled by an Array Controller that has built-in intelligence As a result, each 5.4 Gbyte disk arrays appear as a single disk to the system, increasing the maximum disk capacity on the Series 980 to over 300 Gbytes. Compared to today's disk products, the C225x disk family also offers improved system availability, data protection, lower cost ($/Mbyte), and enhanced performance. Reduced floor space The new disk array products are rackable in the standard 19 inch, 1.6 meter cabinet, allowing ~27 Gbytes of data in a very small footprint. Supportability The disk array products are supported on Series 95x/960/980 systems today via a software patch on 3.0 Series 9x7 systems will support these disks in mid-1992 Note that these disks cannot be used as the System Disk (LDEV 1) Refer to the HP Disk Arrays for Multiuser Systems Sales Guide (P/N 5091-2855E) for details. (Figure 4.5: HP 3000 disk positioning) Positioning of disk array products A range of availability options Standard disk array The standard disk array products (C2252B, 2.7 Gbyte and C2254B, 5.4 Gbyte) provide high reliability at the lowest cost Field upgradable to the high availability disk arrays, this disk investment can be leveraged into a high availability solution in the future. High availability disk array The high availability disk array products (C2252HA, 2.7 Gbyte and C2254HA, 5.4 Gbyte) provide increased data protection and continuous data access even in the event of a failed disk mechanism The failed disk can be replaced and the data automatically restored to the new disk with no impact to user's productivity and access to data The single key point of disk mechanism failure is eliminated These disks are recommended for customers requiring high data availability or large configurations with high system availability. Disk mirroring The new disk array products can also be used in a disk mirroring configuration The low cost of these new HP-FL disks will make disk mirroring more affordable for customers requiring 100% availability of mission critical data All points of potential failure (i.e disk mechanism, I/O cards, disk controller, power supply) are eliminated Mirrored Disk/XL is recommended for customers requiring the highest level of data availability or online data backup. (Figure 4.6) Questions and answers My customers have been hearing about a next generation high-end platform Should they wait for this platform instead of urchasing HP 3000 systems now? Absolutely not If your customer needs high performance or configurability today, then the new Series 980 systems are the solution Their Series 980 investment today is protected with attractive return credits toward the next generation higher performance systems Refer to the CSY Hotline, subject = S980ROI for details. When will information on the next generation high-end latform be available. Over the next several months, information will be made available on the next generation HP 3000 high-end platform Initial details regarding return credits are described in the CSY Hotline, subject = S980ROI. Where can I get high level information on disk array technology? The primer, Disk Arrays (p/n 5091-1396E), is available through the Literature Distribution Center and describes the technology and benefits of disk arrays. Is there a SCSI interface for the disk array products? No, HP-FL is the interconnect for high-end mass storage solutions.