Intel IOMeter: FileServer and WebServer Patterns

We will use a rating system to compare the controllers with one another. The total score will be calculated as average controller performance under all types of workload.

Well, SiliconImage controller coped best of all with the server workload. The second fastest is 3ware controller. In fact, these results almost exactly repeat the picture we have just seen in DataBase pattern, with that only difference that the third position is occupied by Intel controller, which was not among the best in DataBase pattern.

And in WebServer pattern the integrated Intel’s controller managed to become the No.1 having outpaced both: SiliconImage and 3ware. And that’s the chipset controller for desktop PCs, can you believe it?!

Of course, Intel’s controller is in a bit more advantageous situation here, because it can communicate with the chipset North Bridge (read: with the memory) directly, while all other controllers have to use the PCI bus. However, since we haven’t revealed any evident advantage of the Intel controller over the competitors in Sequential Read tests, we assume that its success under server workload is most likely to be connected with the driver peculiarities, and not with the way this controller works with the memory.