Oracle 7.x on HP Servers configuration questions

I know I need to benchmark the systems, what I need now is a sanity check. Is any configuration obviously/seriously short of needed performance? I believe all are capable of the desired level of performance. I believe I have listed the systems in decending order of performance, # 1 is the fastest, # 4 is a (close) slowest.

The application is a shop floor quality tracking system. Read-only queries are expected at the rate of 2 per second. Database update & insert transactions are expected at the rate of 1 every 10 seconds. Each update transaction will affect three tables (work in process) for all transactions (read-n-update) and each will upload parametric data into a process station dependent data table (20 data items).

I am trying to configure a HP Server using Oracle 7.x in a client-server configuration. What I need is a sanity check on relative performance between:

1. HP 9000/I70 (dual processor) HP-UX 9.04 Server with
   • 256 MBytes of RAM
   • F/W SCSI Discs
2. HP 9000/H30 (single processor) HP-UX 9.04 Server with
   • 256 MBytes of RAM
   • F/W SCSI Discs
3. HP LM2 (dual Pentium processors 66 MHz) Windows/NTAS 3.1 with
   • 64 MBytes of RAM
   • Std SCSI Discs
4. HP 9000/827S (single processor) HP-UX 9.04 Server with
   • 256 MBytes of RAM
   • Std SCSI Discs

	What I expect is that configuration # 1 is about three times as
	"fast" as configuration # 2, 4 to 5 times as fast as configurations
	3 and 4.

	When disc channel bandwidth is consumed configuration 1 and 2 will
	be nearly the same speed, but both will be faster than # 3 and # 4
	due to those systems slower disc channel bandwidth.

	Configuration # 2 is about 1.5x the "speed" configurations 3 and 4.

---

	Thank you for taking the time to read this far.  As you can tell I
	am new to Oracle, and quite confused by the claims and
	counter-claims.  I have been "assured" that a 5 GB Oracle database
	with 20 clients (and 0.1 TPS) requires a multi-processor.  I have
	also been "assured" that an Oracle database with 2 transactions per
	second can be handled by a 486/66 PC.  I need to benchmark, but I
	can't benchmark all configurations between single 486/66 and 12 way
	multi-processors.

	Thanks again.
	     -- Mike
		mike_at_sherlock.med.ge.com
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   Michael J. Dyer                      Telephone:   AT&T 414.647.4044
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