Neal Nelson & Associates, a Chicago area computer performance consulting firm, has announced test results that show a possible 37 percent throughput advantage when a Web-based application is run under the 32-bit version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 from Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL), in comparison to the same machine running a 64-bit version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10. The tests were run on a computer configured with two AMD Opteron 64-bit processors.

"Computer performance is affected by many factors, including the operating system software," stated Neal Nelson, president of the consulting firm. "By running an application on a given machine with two different versions of the operating system, we have successfully isolated the performance impact on this application of the 32-bit version versus the 64-bit version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server."

The tests were conducted in the client/server benchmarking laboratory at Nelson's Chicago area offices. During the tests, as many as 512 emulated users processed credit card transactions on an AMD Opteron-based server. The transactions were accepted through Apache2 ".cgi" web pages.

"Novell offers both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of SUSE Linux Enterprise because we have long realized some applications will run faster under a 32-bit operating system while others will require a 64-bit operating system," said Justin Steinman, director of marketing for Linux and Open Platform Solutions at Novell. "This test confirms that this Small Business Transaction Benchmark™ application running under Apache2 delivers higher throughput with the 32-bit version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10."

A white paper is available that describes the test methodology and provides more information about these findings. The white paper can be found at the http://www.worlds-fastest.com web site or by sending an email request to office@nna.com or by calling (847) 851-8900.

The Neal Nelson benchmarking laboratory is available to commercial and government users for independent computer performance tests.