STAC-M3 Benchmarks on the IBM System x3750 M4

In financial markets, the ability to seize opportunities faster than the competition is everything. For high-frequency trading (HFT), smart order routing, crossing, and algorithmic trading, the difference between profit and loss can be measured in microseconds. Firms are in a constant race to cut the time that is taken to process market data, conduct risk analysis, plan trades, and place orders.

These financial systems are built on a highly tuned software architecture that uses industry-standard multi-core processors to deliver the highly deterministic performance that financial markets firms need. By running tick databases on compact IBM® System x® 3750 M4 servers with up to four 8-core Intel Xeon E5-4600 series processors, firms can reliably achieve ultra-low latency and predictable performance.

In this IBM Redpaper™ publication, we describe the baseline STAC-M3 Benchmarks (the “Antuco suite”) that are performed by the Securities Technology Analysis Center (STAC) on a stack involving Kx Systems kdb+ 2.8 that are hosted on an IBM System x3750 M4 server with four 8-core Intel Xeon E5-4650 processors and eight 800 GB Intel S3700 SATA MLC Enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs). The server was connected to the storage using direct SAS connections that were managed by an IBM ServerRAID M5110e SAS/SATA controller.

Overview of the STAC-M3 Benchmarks
IBM System x3750 M4
Benchmark technical requirements
Performance tuning
Results
Summary
For more information
Additional resources

Related product families

Product families related to this document are the following:

• 4-Socket Rack Servers