>Craig, I created a COM+ MTDLL and put it on one of our stronger servers and got it running through DCOM. Pretty cool and not as difficult as I thought it would be.
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>Here's the next challenge though.
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>I've got a simple method of the COM server that counts from 1 to half a billion. It runs on my machine in about 33 seconds and takes the CPU utilization to 99%. When I run it from the COM+ component on the server, the server only runs at 25% utilization and runs it in 25 seconds.
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>My machine is a laptop, 1.4Ghz with 1.25GB RAM. The Server is a dual 3.6 Xeon with 4GB RAM. It seems to me that the server should stomp my laptop, no?. I realize that only one processor would be working on this thread, but still doesn't that disparity seem odd?

Your server is dual CPU. If your COM component runs on only one CPU the total server "utilization" won't exceed 50%. If each Xeon is dual-core that might explain the 25% figure. Take a look at the server's Task Manager/CPU utilization to make sure - it should be possible to view CPUs and/or core(s) individually.

Another fly in the ointment with Intel CPUs is that some support so-called HyperThreading, which can make a single CPU look like 2 to the OS (although real-world performance gains seldom seem to exceed 30%). So, each "virtual CPU" may run effectively at only about 60% of the speed of a non-HT CPU.

Your laptop may use a more efficient processor such as a Pentium-M (Banias) or AMD Turion. These processors do more work per clock cycle than NetBurst P4s or Xeons.