Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) Reprimands Oracle Corporation for Violations of the TPC's Fair Use Policies

The Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) today announced that Oracle Corporation (ORCL) has been reprimanded for violating the TPC's rules for fair use of TPC(R) results. Oracle has been fined and directed to take corrective action. The letter sent to Oracle is available for review at www.tpc.org/letters/oraclefairuse.

The violation occurred when Oracle ran an advertisement in The Wall Street Journal and The Economist claiming that "Sun + Oracle is Faster" compared to a published TPC-C performance result from IBM (IBM). Oracle's claim that it is faster than IBM using a TPC-C benchmark result it claimed would be announced on October 14, 2009 was not supported because Oracle did not have a TPC result at the time of publication. The TPC requires that claims based on TPC benchmarks must be demonstrable using publicly available data from official TPC benchmark results.

The Oracle advertising appeared in printed material and on Oracle's web pages beginning August 27, 2009 and claimed an undefined Oracle and Sun Microsystems (JAVA) solution was superior to the published IBM benchmark result. Oracle has not submitted any current evidence to the TPC to sustain this claimed result. Oracle has been directed to cease publication of the advertisement in print and online. Oracle, as a member of the TPC, is obligated to follow TPC policies.

The mission of the TPC is to define transaction processing and database benchmarks and to disseminate objective, verifiable TPC performance data to the industry. The TPC's fair use rules are designed to encourage fair competition.

About the TPC

The Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) is a non-profit corporation founded to define transaction processing and database benchmarks and to disseminate objective, verifiable TPC performance data to the industry. The TPC currently has 24 full members: AMD, Bull, Dell, Fujitsu, Fusion IO, HP, Hitachi, IBM, Ingres, Intel, Kickfire, Microsoft, NEC, Netezza, Oracle, ParAccel, Sun, Sybase, Syncsort, Teradata, Unisys, Vertica, VMware and XSPRADA. The TPC also has three associate members: Ideas International, ITOM International Co and TTA. Further information is available at http://www.tpc.org.

SOURCE: Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC)

Transaction Processing Performance Council 
Michael Majdalany 
Presidio of San Francisco 
415-561-6110 
majdalany@lm-mgmt.com

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