Re: TPC-A and -B Benchmarks

Kent S. Gordon (kgor_at_aadt.aadt.com) wrote:
: Can someone explain exactly what oracle discrete transactions are?
 

: Thanks,
: --
: Kent S. Gordon
: email: kgor_at_aadt.com
: Telephone: (817)931-2286 (day) or (817)431-8775 (night)
: Fax: (817)963-2692

The Standish Group report on the TPC-A benchmark that is causing all of this fuss tries to explain the discrete transaction concept. The Standish Group report can be obtained by calling them at 508-760-1800 or faxing them at 508-760-1830. The discrete transaction is a rather complicated option with many restrictions that Oracle is positioning for a certain limited types of transactions. Because it does not perform certain functions such as logging (all transaction updates are kept in memory until commit time) it can perform much faster than normal transactions. The discrete transaction (which everyone agrees has rather limited practical usefulness) was used by Oracle to achieve their high TPC-B TPS transaction rates. The Standish Group took the TPC council to task for publishing these numbers because of the limitations of the discrete transaction.

• Rich -- Richard Finkelstein Voice: 312-549-8325 Performance Computing, Inc. Fax: 312-549-4824 Chicago, IL Mail: rfinkel_at_infochi.com