CLIENT/SERVER LABS of Atlanta, Georgia, has announced an independent test suite that runs three simultaneous loads on a server--decision support (DSS), online transaction processing (OLTP), and office automation (OA). The relative performance of these three workloads is combined into a single measurement, called an RPMark 95. The RPMark allows you to compare server performance--even between different architectures.
Windows NT Server and NEC's RISCServer 2200 prove to be a powerful price/performance combination against competing servers. Even with a separate onboard file server CPU (FSIOD option), the AS/400 does not fare well against Windows NT--the latest contender in midrange computing.
The DSS test is based on the Transaction Processing Council's (TPC's) decision-support benchmark, called TPC-D, which simulates DSS by using a database stress test and complex queries.
The OLTP test is based on a modified version of TPC-C. TPC-C tries to model a moderate-to-complex OLTP system based on an order-entry system. Transactions are submitted from UNIX dumb terminals that interact with nine tables on the server database (approximately 250GB). TPC-C is measured in transactions per minute (tpm). Client/Server Labs has modified this test to use PCs instead of dumb terminals and to reduce the database size.
The OA test is based on BAPCO's SYSmark benchmark, which runs a set of scripts against popular desktop applications: cc:Mail, Excel, Freelance, Lotus 1-2-3, Microsoft Word, Harvard Graphics, and Paradox.
For more information, please email Chandler Kim at ckim@cslinc.com, on the Web at http://www.cslinc.com, or call 770-552-3645.
| Client/Server Labs RPMark 95 Comparative Results | |||||||
| System | OS/DBMS | Price | DSS | OLTP | OA | RPMark | $/RPMark |
| NEC RISCServer 2200 (2 CPUs) AT&T GIS Globalyst S40 (2 CPUs) DEC Alpha Server 4/275 (1 CPU) DEC Alpha Server 4/275 (2 CPUs) Compaq Proliant 2000 (1 CPU) Compaq Proliant 2000 (2 CPUs) IBM AS/400 w/FSIOP 30S (2 CPUs) IBM AS/400 w/FSIOP 30S (1 CPU) IBM AS/400 w/FSIOP 20S (1 CPU) HP 9000, E35 |
NT 3.51 MS SQL 6.0 NT 3.51 MS SQL 6.0 NT 3.51 MS SQL 6.0 NT 3.51 MS SQL 6.0 NT 3.51 MS SQL 6.0 NT 3.51 MS SQL 6.0 OS/400 V3R1 DB2/400 OS/400 V3R1 DB2/400 OS/400 V3R1 DB2/400 HP-UX 9.04 |
$34,822 $36,837 $49,616 $58,116 $28,683 $32,881 $75,780 $61,420 $47,950 $123,839 |
334.7 356.0 400.0 410.7 26.7 32.0 256.0 242.7 144.0 70.7 |
647.9 565.8 356.4 368.0 319.5 351.2 445.2 232.6 104.0 403.3 |
118.3 93.7 89.7 91.5 108.5 109.9 132.5 133.3 133.9 21.9 |
294.9 266.3 233.9 239.9 97.1 107.3 247.2 196.0 126.1 84.8 |
$118.08 $138.33 $212.12 $242.25 $295.40 $306.44 $306.55 $313.37 $380.25 $1460.37 |
| For DSS, OLTP, OA, and RPMark, higher is better, for $/RPMark, lower is better. | |||||||