Re: Informix vs. Sybase vs. Oracle vs. (gasp) MS SQL Server

Steve Phelan wrote:
>
> Reid Fleming wrote:
>
> > Larry Stephenson <larrst_at_digital.net> wrote:

<snip>

> > I've worked with all three. IMHO, they each have their own points:
> >
> > Sybase - great environment for administering or developing. The
> > weakest point was its 'page-level locking'. That means that if you
> > have a lot of users trying to get at the same tables, you'll often
> > have users locked out. If they got this problem fixed, I'd
> > recommend
> > it the most.
> >
> > Informix - great use of processing power on SMP computers. Fast
> > loads and indexing, and the OLTP seems to function well. I really
> > liked the stability and reliability as well. I recommend this
> > database be used for your situation.
> >
> > Oracle - lots of people use this. It has some strengths, such as
> > row level locking, but the environment for developers and
> > administrators are a little kludgy. It doesn't have some utilities
> > found in Informix or Sybase, like a fast 'unload' utility for
> > getting
> > data out of tables. ( I hear there are some third party products
> > that
> > will do this). Overall very solid performance....just needs a few
> > more bells and whistles.
> >
> > By the way, I'd highly recommend that you go with Suns over the
> > RS6000. I've had experience with these databases on the RS6000's,
> > the Sun servers, and HP 9000's. You really need a box that's more
> > scalable than the RS6000 if you think of increasing your DB size or
> > the number of users. The multi-machine approach that IBM takes
> > to scalability does not work as well as a big, single box that can
> > take up to 12 processors. I think the databases are just not
> > written
> > in a way that take advantage of them.
> >
> > Hope this helps
>
> Not quite sure what you mean by 'The multi-machine approach that IBM
> takes
> to scalability does not work as well as a big, single box that can
> take up to 12 processors. I think the databases are just not written
> in a way that take advantage of them.'?
>
> The IBM RS6000 J30 and R30 models can take 2, 4, 6 or 8 processors in an
> SMP environment which Oracle 7 will fully exploit. How would an Sun or
> HP SMP server differ?
>

I think Larry's referring to the SP machines (mutltiple RS/6000 node environment) vs. what you describe as SMP machines (multiple chips in a single box).

I believe several DB vendors have written "parallel" versions of their products to take advantage of the SP type machines.

Dave
> Steve Phelan.
 

-- 
Dave Raddatz
PHONE: (512) 838-8579
E-MAIL: raddatz_at_austin.ibm.com