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Conference ulysse::rdb_vms_competition

Title:DEC Rdb against the World
Moderator:HERON::GODFRIND
Created:Fri Jun 12 1987
Last Modified:Thu Feb 23 1995
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1348
Total number of notes:5438

594.0. "An Oracle person describes benchmarking" by COOKIE::DEVINE (Bob Devine, CXN) Mon Mar 12 1990 18:19

    The following message is from an Oracle employee describing how
    they get some of their performance numbers.  This comes from
    Usenet, a world-wide message exchanging system.

From: [email protected] (Charles Simmons)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: 64-bit addresses
Date: 6 Mar 90 08:11:15 GMT
Organization: Oracle Corp

Here at Oracle, we run TP1s on lots of different platforms.  Currently
the Amdahl 5990 is the fastest TP1 machine.  [Hmmm...  Unless Amdahl
has announced something more recent than the 5990.]  A good industrial
strength mainframe can generate something on the order of 300 or so
transactions per second.  [It might be 250, it might be 400, I don't
remember the exact number.  But it isn't 1000, unless you cheat a lot.]

A good fast mini such as a Sequent with 20 or so processors can execute
on the order of 120 transactions per second.  I think you could get
a Sun 3/50 or 3/60 to do around 10 transactions per second.  For the
current generation of RISC workstations, 20-30 TPS is the figure to shoot for.

What kind of hardware do you need for high TPS rates?  Fast disks.
When we're doing performance analysis of a port, we play lots of little
games like using a real small database that fits in memory, etc.  On
a 5990, if your database fits in memory, and if you turn off logging
[Kids!  Don't try this at home!] you can get 1000 or so TPS.  But as
soon as you start doing I/O, your performance drops dramatically.

For example, the Apollo Prism (4 processors) can do around 120 TPS...as long
as you don't do any I/O.  Start doing I/O and the number drops to 30 or
40.  Also, EDASD helps your TPS rates a lot.

An interesting measure is cost per TPS.  A mainframe costs around
$50,000 per TPS.  A PC costs about $1,000 per TPS.

Currently, the various development groups around here are having a bit
of a contest to see who can put together the first machine to execute
1000 TPS (with I/O turned on).  The next goal will be to do 1000 TPS
at a cost of $1,000 per TPS.

-- Chuck
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name
DateLines
594.1Oracle...California Wonderland!DPDMAI::DAVISGBEscapee from New Hampshire...Mon Mar 12 1990 22:119
    No wonder these folks don't have a sense of reality when dealing with
    customers.  They're in a little dream world of their own....
    
    Must be a scary place to work...
    
    (or exciting, depending upon your perspective!)
    
    Gil
    
594.2In fact it's twice as fast, yeah that's the ticketSRFSUP::LANGSTONRdb is *the* Relational db for the VAXTue Mar 13 1990 01:2633
�    On a 5990, if your database fits in memory, and if you turn off logging
�    [Kids!  Don't try this at home!] you can get 1000 or so TPS. 

    Hmmm...    
�    Currently
�    the Amdahl 5990 is the fastest TP1 machine.  [Hmmm...  Unless Amdahl
�    has announced something more recent than the 5990.]  A good industrial
�    strength mainframe can generate something on the order of 300 or so
�    transactions per second. 
    
    Okay... So if I wanted to make my numbers look as good as possible on
    a big machine like a 5990, I could get 1000 TPS by using a small
    database, but a larger database (a large database) would yield TPS 
    rates 1/3 that.

    Tell me more.

�    For example, the Apollo Prism (4 processors) can do around 120
�    TPS...as long
�    as you don't do any I/O.  Start doing I/O and the number drops to 30 or
�    40.  Also, EDASD helps your TPS rates a lot.

    I see, once again, more reasonable numbers are 1/4 to 1/3 the rates
    you get when you "play lots of little games."
    
    So that means that, if I claimed, say, oh 66 tps - yeah that's a nice 
    round number, I would really only be able to deliver in the 16-22 tps
    range, in the real world.
    
�    But it isn't 1000, unless you cheat a lot.
    
    Sort of speaks for it self, wouldn't you say?