The processor war seems to be hotting up. IBM recently (8th February) launched their latest Power7 processor, which adds more cores and improved multithreading capabilities to boost the performance of servers requiring high up time. The Power7 chip has up to eight cores, with each core able to run four threads, and can simultaneously run 32 tasks. This is four times the number of cores on the older Power6 chip.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/188790/ibm_launches_eightcore_power7_processor_servers.html

IBM has reported that eMeter, a leading maker of software that runs e-grids, ran a successful benchmark on IBM Power6 systems for more than 20 million smart meters. Scott Smith, eMeter client business manager, said, “Combining eMeter and IBM’s Power7, we are confident we can hit much higher numbers to meet their needs.

IBM’s Power7 is sure to raise the heat on Intel. Intel will be under tremendous pressure because its Itanium Tukwila is only quad core. Nehalem EX the eight-core chip can only carry out hyperthreading for two threads.

http://www.slashgear.com/intel-nehalem-ex-server-cpu-8-cores-16-threads-64-dimms-per-platform-2744906/

Meanwhile, Oracle appears to have a “trick or two” up its sleeve. Take a look at their TPC-C benchmark in cluster mode. They use an eight core, eight thread, UltraSparc T2

http://tpc.org/tpcc/results/tpcc_result_detail.asp?id=109110401

And they beat IBM’s non-clustered numbers by a good 25%. While this may not be an appropriate comparison; if speed is all that counts, this is definitely ok.