Does NetWare 5 Take Advantage of L2 Cache?
Articles and Tips: qna
01 May 2001
Q.
Dear Ab-end: I'm thinking of upgrading my server. I'm trying to decide between buying a Pentium III with 512 KB L2 Cache and an Xeon-based server. Does NetWare 5.1 take advantage of the 2 MB Cache on the Xeon? - Wants Cache in Connecticut
A.
Dear Wanting: Couldn't we all use more cash? Oh, you said cache. And, yes, we could all use more cache, too. NetWare will use the full L2 cache regardless of its size. It gets a little complicated, however, when you factor in the working set of data for NetWare and for a given server-based application.
For example, if you're running a server-based application that frequently accesses 20 MB of data, NetWare will have to go to main memory most of the time regardless of whether the cache is 512 KB or 2 MB. There just isn't enough L2 cache available to store that 20 MB of data. But, if you're running an application that frequently uses only 1 MB of data, that application will perform significantly better on the 2 MB L2 cache system because the data will tend to stay in the cache.
Most NetWare-based applications fall somewhere in between these examples. Most of the data stays in main memory, but frequently accessed data migrates to the L2 cache. So you should see improved efficiency with the larger L2 cache.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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