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Performance / Price Soft and PennySort
August 1, 1998
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Download PDF
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BibTex
Authors

Joshua Coates

Jim Gray

Chris Nyberg
Publication Type
TechReport
Pages
7
Number
MSR-TR-98-45

Abstract
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Related Info
Abstract
NTsort is an external sort on WindowsNT 5.0. It has minimal functionality but excellent price
performance. In particular, running on mail-order hardware it can sort 1.5 GB for a penny. NT5.0
is not yet available. For commercially available sorts, Postman Sort from Robert Ramey
Software Development has elapsed time performance comparable to NTsort, while using less
processor time. It can sort 1.27 GB for a penny (12.7 million records.) These sorts set new priceperformance records. This paper documents this and proposes that the PennySort benchmark be
revised to Performance/Price sort: a simple GB/ sort metric based on a two-pass external sort.
Related Info
Related Files
 tr-98-45.doc
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