The generation gap: Windows on multicore | InfoWorld | Analysis | 2009-01-22 | By Randall C. Kennedy

Description

Only in scalability percentage improvements (when moving to quad-core processing) do Vista and Windows 7 outperform Windows XP. Consequently, Windows XP is the OS that simply will not die, and for good reason: It's mature, stable, and - - most important -- fast as the wind on today's hardware. In fact, Windows XP outpaced its younger siblings by a factor of two during multiprocess workload testing -- concurrent database, workflow, and multimedia tasks on our dual-core test bed and by up to 66 percent on our quad-core test bed.

In terms of raw application throughput, Windows XP clearly is still king of the hill. However, despite its current edge on dual-core and quad-core systems, Microsoft's 8-year-old OS is beginning to show its age. For example, when you contrast the dual- and quad-core transaction times for the ADO (database) and MAPI (workflow) workloads, you see that scalability -- in terms of a percentage improvement from dual-core to quad-core -- is capped at 265 percent for the database tasks and 32 percent for the messaging workflow tasks. While excellent by legacy Windows NT standards, these improvements pale next to the 571 percent boost witnessed for the same SQL-driven database workload under Windows 7, or the 58 percent improvement for the MAPI message store workflow task under Windows Vista.

It should come as no surprise that Windows 7 performs very much like its predecessor [Vista]. In fact, during extensive multiprocess benchmark testing, Windows 7 essentially mirrored Vista in almost every scenario.

Original URL

http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/01/22/03TC-windows-multicore_1.html

http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/01/22/03TC-windows-multicore_1.html