Hewlett-Packard Co this week introduces a 64-bit version of its HP-UX 11.0 Unix operating system, claiming it now holds a technology lead of at least a year over close rival Sun Microsystems Inc and that high-end 64-bit PA-RISC 8000-based systems running the new release outperform Sun servers by nearly 30%. HP thinks Sun has spent too much time brewing coffee – referring to its emphasis on Java – claiming the company’s attention has been diverted away from developing core Unix technologies. HP-UX 11.0 has been developed using the company’s 3DA modular Unix design and runs on 64-bit PA-8000 RISCs and older 32-bit PA-7000-based systems. HP says HP-UX 11.0 performs 39,469 TPC-C transactions per minute -$94.18 per tpmC – running Sybase Inc Adaptive Server enterprise version, a 64-bit successor to that company’s SQL Server 11 database which will be unveiled in New York this week. The HP 9000 V2200 server with 16 PA-8200 RISC chips outperforms Sun 24-way Ultra Enterprise 6000 server running Oracle 8.0.3 – which performs 31,147 tpmC – by 27%. Twisting the knife, Oracle maintains that TPC-C configurations allow databases without row level locking – such as Sybase – to run very fast. The 64-bit HP-UX 11.0, which will also be available as a 32-bit operating system for those who will not be taking advantage of 64-bits – runs on HP’s big-endian PA-RISC processor and supersedes existing 10.x releases. It can support up to four terabytes of memory in theory – although HP’s largest Unix system can only be configured with 16Gb RAM – and files sizes of more than one terabyte. HP says compilers have been optimized for 64-bits and that all of the existing 14,000-odd HP- UX applications will run on 11.0, performing between 15% and 200% better than on previous versions of the operating system. ISVs will have to re-write them to be able to take full advantage of 64-bits. The only purpose built 64-bit software currently available for HP-UX 11.0 are the major relational databases.
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HP says the 11.0 release includes many integrated management functions which Sun does not supply a standard with its Solaris Unix, including new POPS performance-optimized page sizing enabling administrators to specify how much memory an application can utilize. Ignite/UX can capture the configuration of a system which can be used to deploy HP-UX 11.0 on multiple systems as they are brought on stream. Also included is a Java-browser-based administration manager and bundled versions of Computer Associates Unicenter-TNG framework, Software Distributor/UX Netscape FastTrack, Oracle web application server and OpenView- ready. Newly-bundled internet technologies include IPsec security, IP version 6, IP multicasting and IP aliasing. HP-UX 11.0 includes a 64-bit version of Veritas software’s eponymous VxFS journaled file system and is claimed to backup data at a rate of one terabyte an hour. HP-UX 11.0 includes the long- awaited support for kernel-level threads that other vendors already provide, allowing applications to run in parallel. Future HP-UX 11.x cuts will provide support for PA-RISC systems with up to 64 processors, 32Gb memory, and ccNUMA distributed shared memory architectures plus future PA-RISC chips and the IA-64 instruction set architecture it co-developed with Intel Corp which gets its first public airing at next month’s Microprocessor Forum conference. HP is working to merge its Convex Computer Corp subsidiary’s SPP-UX Unix with HP-UX by 1999: SPP-UX will bring support for ccNUMA, distributed files system technologies and additional scaling.
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