>I have been asked to look into finding a faster computer for a VFP system. Currently, it takes almost 2 days to run a task [multiple tables, up to 3 million records in some of the tables] on a dual pentium 500 Mhz. Does anyone know how much faster this might run on a SUN 5000? [I already asked about optimizing the code and they think they have done everything they can. I don't know anything about the system -- they just have to cut the processing time.]
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A third vote in favor of it won't run faster on the Sun. the Sun can't run VFP native - it has to emulate the Win32 environment, so it's a not good idea.

If they aren't running on NT, with the the MultiCPU HAL, it isn't aking advantage of the second processor at all. WinNT Enterprise or WIn2K Advanced Server can support larger phsycial memory configurations, since they can handle a larger application dataspace.

Memory mismangement and the loading of the disk channel rather than processor speed are the most probable bottlenecks if the problem is not in software. Misconfigured large RAM environments can actually hurt VFP performance. It's even more likely that reexamining the activity, and possibly splitting the work between multiple VFP sessions, can improve system throughput. This is a situation where there are no real guidelines, and unless the users are extrememly technically competent, they are not likely to understand how to optimize the process.

MOVING THE VFP APP TO A NON-Wintel PROBABLY WON'T HELP. Moving the data manipulation to a powerful backend server is more likely to yield significant benefits, but that will involve changes to hardware and software. If the user thinks that they know that the process is CPU-bound, the odds are they either know enough to not try running under an emulator, or are clue-free and listening to hype.