Subject: Re: SMPs - clusters - db perf. - parallelism

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 14:08:26 -0500

Try http://www.software.ibm.com/data/db2/ -- somewhere from there you may
find something.

or use "DB2 EEE" (that's one parallel version) in the search. Doing that is
how I found the URL above. Somebody appears to have been working on the
searches for the IBM site; they actually seem to be coming up with fairly
intelligent results these days, which is a *big* change from their previous
behavior.

Greg Pfister
Senior Technical Staff Member, IBM Advanced Technology & Architecture,
Server Design
(512) 838-8338 | IBM tieline 678-8338 | FAX (512) 838-3418        Sic
Crustulum Frangitur

To:   Greg Pfister/Austin/IBM
cc:
Subject:  Re: SMPs - clusters - db perf. - parallelism

Greg,

Thanks for the info. I plan to look into this a little further so any
comments you might have on the subject would be appreciated.
BTW, what is the DB2's url there at IBM?

After doing some search/research I'll try to write up something.
I'll keep you posted. In case you come across anything of interest, please
drop me a line or two.

best regards,
Saleh

On Sun, 25 Apr 1999 [email-masked] wrote:

>
>
> Saleh,
>
> Sorry, I don't have any direct pointers for you on that topic. But I can
> give you some indirections.
>
> I doubt there are any journal articles and the like. I would look on the
> web sites of database vendors (Oracle, Sybase, DB2 (for 390 and for other
> systemss -- two different programs, one name (marketing!)), Informix,
> Tandem/Compaq). What I'd look for are white papers, "red books" (IBM),
and
> other things attempting to educate programmers on how to write SQL that
> runs well in parallel.
>
> There *might* also be some information on the web sites of system vendors
> who do parallel commercial systems (IBM, HP, Sun, Compaq/DEC,
> Compaq/Tandem), but you're more likely to find it on the database
vendors'
> sites, I think.
>
> And hey, if you find anything interesting and/or useful, let me know.
>
> I agree with you that it is a key attribute. It's not the only one,
> obviously -- making parallelism work is a large logical "AND": One thing
> doesn't work and it doesn't work.
>
> Greg Pfister
> Senior Technical Staff Member, IBM Advanced Technology & Architecture,
> Server Design
> (512) 838-8338 | IBM tieline 678-8338 | FAX (512) 838-3418        Sic
> Crustulum Frangitur
>
>
>

---

From: Saleh Elmohamed <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 01:09:16 -0400

Hi Greg,

I've been looking at some of those redbooks on performance. 
There is an interesting one on performance tips and techniques for
the SanFrancisco project.

This is a tough issue and most likely will come down to that 
hard-nut-to-crack issue of understanding the hardware implications of
designing software.

How one go about analyzing performance of any kind of software 
(scientific or IT type) without first understanding of the impact
of the hardware that piece of software will run on and how the 
hardware is put together, on the design, speedup, etc. of the software
???!!! ... In other words, have a clear idea of the limitation of
the hardware first before twisting and turning the software ....

Am I correct/half way correct on this view? 

You probably have beaten this thing to death by now, and from reading
your book it sounds that way, but would really like to see some of
your insightful comments about it ... ?

best,
Saleh