Sybase Inc, Emeryville, California yesterday announced Sybase SQL Server support for symmetric multiprocessor systems, saying that it had extended its uniprocessor server architecture to a Virtual Server Architecture explicitly designed to take full advantage of symmetric multiprocessor hardware systems to provide high throughput and linear scalable performance. The SQL Server with Virtual Server Architecture will be available for beta testing on the Stratus XA2000 line of fault-tolerant computers next quarter and generally available later this year. Versions will follow for DEC and Pyramid Technology computers later in the year. The new version manages all database scheduling, load balancing and synchronisation without interference from the operating system. On a Stratus XA2000 Model 160 in a fault-tolerant environment with of networked communication and duplexed disks, the thing did 43 TP1 transactions per sec ond with an average response time of 0.71 seconds on a database with over 4.3m rows – against 8.1 tps with the uniprocessor version of SQL Server, Sybase says. Scalabil ity is claimed to be 95% when the number of processors goes from one to six. Memory needed is 50Kb per user. The company gave no prices.
