| Thursday, July 11, 2002 |
14:41 - Xserve Specs
http://www.apple.com/xserve/performance.html
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Though they were performed by Apple and the results are posted on Apple's site, they're independent test suites, developed by other companies. Okay? There's a whole battery of them, ranging from BLAST (the DNA-sequencing software) to Photoshop file open/save (not any controversial filter tests), network throughput, and disk storage speed.
Not all the tests even show the Xserve as being the leader. In the Photoshop file-open test, for instance, the Xserve is at the bottom of the pack-- though as the number of simulated clients rises, the Xserve's performance continues to scale up, while the competitors begin to nose-dive. And in RIP printing (at right), the Xserve leaps out to an early lead-- but then flattens off, while the competitors scale past it.
But look at these graphs, man. No matter how you tilt your screen (assuming you can tilt your screen, hyuk hyuk), these are benchmarks to be proud of.
I'm sure someone will find a way to claim that the tests were rigged, that the test suites are flawed or the playing field was tilted. I'm sure some people (okay, many people) are already so well conditioned by past controversy as to treat any numbers quoted by Apple as automatically suspect at best.
But, well, it does seem just possible that these numbers represent what they appear to represent.
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