Re: Oracle Benchmark Results for Different Hardware Configurations?

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:29:58 -0700, DA Morgan wrote:

> Serge Rielau wrote:

>> Further, car manufacturers certainly tune there vehicles to get the 
>> safety rating they aspire to rather than decreasing the de-facto injury 
>> rates (which would be the real application).

What is the purpose of the commercial benchmark?

I believe it is to give a relative comparison so that someone looking for equipment can use that as a starting point for decision making. Using defined standards to ensure intelligent people have a basis for trusting that comparison.  

I just bought a new car. One of the qualifications was 'very good fuel economy'. I looked at the standard fuel rating specs to assist in the decision process.

I would be a fool to expect the same mileage as the car manufacturer has all sorts of tricks to squeeze the best out of the car.

But I would be just as big a fool to expect the manufacturer or sales house to give me 10 cars, for one week each, so I could make my own comparison under my normal driving conditions.

So I used the benchmark as a guideline. Used it to reject some cars and select others for further study. I'll be happy if the new car achieves within 15% of the specs ... I simply don't drive downhill with a tail wind all the time.

Same thing with the TPCs ... I know that the load is not identical to mine and that my tuning skills are not as extreme as those by the TPC team. But I also realize that all the vendors use the 'professional driver on a closed track' tactic, so I know that the benchmarks describe 'the best possibility' regardless of vendor combination. Therefore I can look at the benchmark results and select or reject configurations //as candidates for further study//!

But don't accuse me of being stupid enough to expect the TPCs to reflect my workload, or to give me an absolute target for performance in my environment. That level of stupidity is reserved for the PHB and shareholder crowd.

-- 
Hans Forbrich   (mailto: Fuzzy.GreyBeard_at_gmail.com)   
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