Sun JDK 1.3 slower on Solaris 8 than Linux 6.2

Question

I'm doing platform testing to determine which OS will run my application the fastest. I
have a RH Linux 6.2 box with dual p3-700's /512 Mb RAM running WLS 5.1 sp 5 with
Sun's JDK 1.3 and a Sun E-250 running Solaris 8, with dual Sparc 400's / 512 Mb
RAM running WLS 5.1 sp5 with Sun's JDK 1.3 Amazingly, the Linux box runs about
2x to 3x faster under load than the Sun box. Based on the hardware being used, one
would assume the Sun box would be AT LEAST as fast if not FASTER than the Linux
box. Surely, Sun didn't write a JDK for Linux that outperforms Solaris. There are alot
of different features/switches to the 1.3 JDK, I tried using different combinations and
so far came to the conclusion that the JVM should be invoked with the following:
- server -XX:+UseThreadPriorities -Xms256m -Xmx384m

Answer 1

If you are just looking for raw performance, you will do better on x86.
Even at the same mhz, you will typically get better performance from an x86
processor (e.g. P3). If you are looking to save money up front, obviously
you can't beat commodity x86 hardware running Linux. There are those who
believe that you save a lot of money (and headache) over the long term by
going with Sun Sparc running Solaris.
Cameron Purdy
Tangosol, Inc.
http://www.tangosol.com
+1.617.623.5782
WebLogic Consulting Available
"Chris" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>
Well the question I was asking was what kind of analysis to do.
I'm not sure what else to tweak, configure, or manipulate. The
app doesn't hit a db in testing, rather we have it reading from a
rowset locally on disk to eliminate any latency associated with db access.It is highly CPU bound, the piece of the app in question processes data
through some complex algorithms to provide data back to the web server. Do
you think the SPARC 400's are really 2x slower than the P3-700's? If that's
the case, then
it would be a hard sell to run a java app on a Sun box at 5x the cost ofrunning it on Linux.
>
Thanks,
-Chris
Rob Woollen <[email protected]> wrote:
You'd have to do some more analysis to figure out why the Linux box is
faster.
What is your application doing under load? Are you hitting a database?
Are you cpu-bound, io-bound etc?
FWIW, if you were cpu-bound, a p3-700 is quite a bit faster than a
Sparc-400. However, web applications are rarely cpu-bound.
-- Rob
Chris Cosie wrote:
I'm doing platform testing to determine which OS will run my
application the fastest. I
have a RH Linux 6.2 box with dual p3-700's /512 Mb RAM running WLS 5.1sp 5 with
Sun's JDK 1.3 and a Sun E-250 running Solaris 8, with dual Sparc 400's/ 512 Mb
RAM running WLS 5.1 sp5 with Sun's JDK 1.3 Amazingly, the Linux boxruns about
2x to 3x faster under load than the Sun box. Based on the hardwarebeing used, one
would assume the Sun box would be AT LEAST as fast if not FASTER thanthe Linux
box. Surely, Sun didn't write a JDK for Linux that outperforms Solaris.There are alot
of different features/switches to the 1.3 JDK, I tried using differentcombinations and
so far came to the conclusion that the JVM should be invoked with thefollowing:
- server -XX:+UseThreadPriorities -Xms256m -Xmx384m