Comment on 'Practical Oracle 8i'

From: Christopher Spence <cspence_at_FuelSpot.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 21:07:24 -0700
Message-ID: <F001.0036C6C6.20010815211549@fatcity.com>

Well, I just got this book, and just started reading through it. Looks good so far. Just would like to comment on something I saw.

Must say BookPool.com is so awesome. 40% off most books (which I bought three this time) and paid $4 for 5 day shipping yet I get it the next day on my doorstep. Got to love that.

Page 28:

I will quote:

"A greater number of slower CPU's is often better than a fewer number of faster ones."

To some extent I believe this is true especially with the efficient use of caching in most OS's. But with the larger caches on unix cpu's, 4Mb, 8Mb. There is a loss of performance when a process runs on a cpu, then context switches and then placed on another cpu. All the cached tlb's are then sitting on another cpu and need to be reloaded. Although the os will try to reschedule recently run processes on the same cpu, that doesn't always happen on a busy system. Also the fact that faster cpu's return the processes back faster.

Although on the other hand, with more cpu's, more can get done simultaneously but at a slower rate. And there would be fewer context switches with many more cpu's.

Just something to think about.
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Author: Christopher Spence
INET: cspence_at_FuelSpot.com

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