“In a benchmark test completed by Microsoft just prior to
today’s event, Windows 2000 running on a system of 12 servers from
Compaq Computer (nyse: CPQ) with a total of 72 Pentium III
processors was able to conduct 227,079 order transactions per
minute. ‘That’s enough to handle all the e-commerce conducted on
the Web last year in two days,’ said an ebullient Gates.
Microsoft said the Windows 2000 system performed 67% faster than
the previous record of 135,815 transactions per minute achieved by
a single IBM server, and 68% better than a system of four Sun
servers boasting a total of 96 processors.
Sun and IBM are certain to dispute the test results,
which they likely could match or beat by ‘clustering’ more machines
together and increasing the number of processors. But Microsoft
plainly intends to use the benchmarks as evidence that Windows 2000
can run even the largest corporate enterprises. The operating
system’s predecessor, Windows NT, had difficulty scaling beyond
workgroup servers, and Microsoft has made scalability a key goal in
the new software, which officially went on sale today.”