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From: mat@amdahl.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: TP1 benchmark programs
Message-ID: <6159@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 10-Apr-87 10:57:00 EST
Article-I.D.: amdahl.6159
Posted: Fri Apr 10 10:57:00 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Apr-87 17:24:45 EST
References: <682@dlvax1.datlog.co.uk>
Organization: Amdahl Corp, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 34
Keywords: benchmarks

In article <682@dlvax1.datlog.co.uk>, ajs@datlog.co.uk ( Andy Simms ) writes:
> 
> More and more relational database vendors are quoting transaction throughput
> rates in terms of the TP1 benchmark.
> I have recently seen programs purporting to conform to this definition of TP1
> that lead me to believe quoted transaction rates are misleading:
> 
> 1. TP1 is run as a single process and is therefore measuring
>    batch-style transactions rather than on-line ones.

What is wrong with this procedure?  If the vendor wishes to run only
one transaction at a time, he is probably limiting his performance.
There is nothing wrong with queuing the input messages and then feeding
them one at a time into a single process (so long as the cost of doing
this is accounted for, and response time constraints are met.
Any throughput benchmark of this type must set a response time
requirement or it is meaningless.
.P
Many 370-world transaction processing systems use some fixed number
of processes which is much less than the number of users and assign
transactions to processes as they are scheduled. A process is not
committed to a user, but is more likely to be committed to a transaction
type for efficiency reasons.

> 2. The programs I saw did NOT include the ESSENTIAL begin/commit
>    pair (essential to maintain the integrity of the database).

This, of course is unforgivable, and renders the results pretty
meaningless.  Transaction systems must pass the ACID test - Atomic,
Consistent, Independent, Durable. Otherwise they are toys.
-- 
Mike Taylor                        ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,amd,sun}!amdahl!mat

[ This may not reflect my opinion, let alone anyone else's.  ]