Microsoft KB Archive/64979

= ISAM Benchmark of PDS 7.10 Versus 7.00, FoxPro, and Btrieve =

Article ID: 64979

Article Last Modified on 11/21/2006



This article was previously published under Q64979



SUMMARY
The following article gives a benchmark comparison of ISAM file speed in Microsoft Basic Professional Development System (PDS) version 7.10 versus the following products: Basic PDS version 7.00, Fox Software's FoxPro version 1.0, and Novell's Btrieve version 5.0c.

These performance comparisons are taken from the Microsoft press release document (for Basic PDS 7.10) dated July 24, 1990.



ISAM DATABASE SPEED COMPARISONS
The benchmark suites used by Microsoft for performance testing and comparison are similar to those used by Software Digest at National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL) for benchmarking of relational databases. All benchmark tests below were performed on a COMPAQ 386 20e with a 110 MB hard disk and 640K of conventional memory under MS-DOS.

The following four files (&quot;tables&quot; in Basic PDS) were used: two files (tables) with three indexed columns and 1000 records; one file (table) with three indexed columns and 10000 records; and one file (table) with two indexed columns and 10000 records. Each record (in each file/table) contained 10 text columns plus one integer column, for a total of 122 characters per record. The total database size for the four files (tables) was 6 megabytes in both Basic PDS and Novell Btrieve. A disk unfragmentation utility was run to compact the databases before performing the benchmarks.

Basic PDS 7.10 Versus 7.00
All tests ran using 64K of ISAM buffer space.                                                        PDS 7.10 Improvement Item                              PDS 7.00  PDS 7.10  Percent over PDS 7.00

Average Individual Record Search  1.4        1.3         8% Group Record Search On Index      6.3        5.6        13% Group Record Search w/o an Index 14          9.9        41% Subtotal 100 Groups/Short Field  34.8       20.7        68% Two-File Join with Subtotals    203.2      131.4        55% 3-File Join w/ Hi Record Return 220.9      173.7        27% Three-File Join with Subtotaling 154.1      62.1       148% 4-File Join w/ Lo Record Return  82.8       39.9       108% Two-File, Many to Many Join       5.6        3.1        81% Mean Speed Improvement of 61 percent Basic PDS 7.10 over PDS 7.00

Microsoft Basic PDS 7.10 Versus FoxPro 1.0 (from Fox Software)
These tests ran using maximum buffer space available in 640K conventional memory.                                                         PDS 7.10 over Item                              FoxPro 1.0  PDS 7.10  FoxPro, in Percent --   --

Average Individual Record Search  1.5          1.3        15% Group Record Search On Index      4            4.4        -9% Group Record Search w/o Index     7.5          9         -17% Subtotal 100 Groups/Short Field  22.1         20.2         9% Two-File Join with Subtotals     34.3         30.8        11% 3-File Join with Hi Record Return 72.1        46.4        55% Three-File Join with Subtotaling 44.9         34.2        31% 4-File Join with Lo Record Return 30.3        32.1        -6% Two-File, Many to Many Join       4.7          3.1        52% Mean Speed Improvement of 16 percent Basic PDS 7.10 over FoxPro

Basic PDS 7.10 Versus Novell's Btrieve 5.0c
These tests were run using a maximum buffer space of 64K in Btrieve.                                                       PDS 7.10 over

Item                          Btrieve 5.0c  PDS 7.10  Btrieve, in Percent ---

Average Individual Record Search   0.8       1.3       -38% Group Record Search On Index       4.3       5.6       -23% Group Record Search w/o an Index  19.9       9.9       101% Subtotal 100 Groups/Short Field   64.3      20.7       211% Two-File Join with Subtotals     400       131.4       204% 3-File Join w/ Hi Record Return  288       173.7        66% Three-File Join with Subtotaling 235.9      62.1       280% 4-File Join w/ Lo Record Return  110        39.9       176% Two-File, Many to Many Join       15.3       3.1       394% Mean Speed Improvement of 152 percent Basic PDS 7.10 over Btrieve

Additional query words: BasicCom

Keywords: KB64979

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