ClearCube R1200 User Manual download pdf (Page 3)

Principled Technologies, Inc.: ClearCube PC Blade vs. thin client

performance in typical office application scenarios

Application scenarios

To gauge performance on typical office applications, we developed a set of 4 test scenarios. We focused primarily

on processor-intensive operations that often force users to wait, because users are likely to appreciate

performance improvements on such operations. Each scenario contains 1 to 3 timed common business functions.

We created 2 scenarios that include a single task and 2 that include multiple tasks running at the same time.

Single task scenario: Calculating subtotals in Microsoft Excel

In our first scenario, Carson, the head of sales for a specialty retailer, is reviewing a sales report in Excel and

wants to get totals for each of her associates. Her spreadsheet is a 1.79MB Excel file on the file server. The

worksheet has 11,511 rows of sales data in 11 columns. She selects Data/Subtotals from the Excel menu. The

Subtotals dialog displays, and she fills in information on the subtotal she needs. She presses Enter and waits for

the recalculation to complete.

We timed this task from the point she presses Enter until the Excel status bar displays Ready at the end of the

calculation.

Single task scenario: Compressing a PDF from within Adobe Acrobat

In our second scenario, Parker, the assistant to a marketing director, has a 4.01MB PDF of a white paper that he

wants to put on the company’s Web site. He plans to save download time for customers by reducing the files size.

He has the file open in Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard and selects File/Reduce File Size. When the Reduce File

Size dialog displays, Parker changes the Make Compatible with: selection to Acrobat 7.0 or later and presses OK.

In the Save As dialog, he enters compressed.pdf as the file name and presses Save. Acrobat compresses the file

and then displays a Conversion Warning saying that the PDF contained image masks that were not down-

sampled. Parker presses OK, and Acrobat displays his compressed PDF.

We timed this task from the point he presses OK in the Reduce File Size dialog until the Conversion Warning

appears at the end of the compression.

Multitasking scenario: Changing the view in a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation while

compressing a folder in Windows Explorer

In the third scenario, Maya, a project manager, has a 265MB folder in her My Documents folder that she wants to

compress and copy to an FTP site for a customer. (We stored this folder locally on the ClearCube PC Blades,

because a typical PC Blade user would likely work on such a large amount of data locally. We necessarily stored

the folder on the file server for the thin clients.) She locates the folder in Windows Explorer, right-clicks it, and

selects Send to/Compressed (zipped) Folder from the drop-down menu that displays. She continues working

while Windows Explorer compresses the file. Her next task is to edit a PowerPoint deck for an upcoming

customer presentation. The PowerPoint file is on the file server. While the compression is still running, she opens

the 30.4MB, 36-slide PowerPoint deck and selects View\Slide Sorter so she can find the slide she wants. She

then must wait for the slides to display. She will later copy the 195MB compressed (zipped) folder to the FTP site.

We timed 3 tasks:

• the Windows Explorer task, from the time Maya starts the compression until the Compressing dialog

disappears

• the PowerPoint open task, from the time she clicks the desktop shortcut to open the file until PowerPoint

displays all the slide snapshot on the left

• the PowerPoint change view task, from the time she selects View\Slide Sorter until PowerPoint displays

all the slide images.

Multitasking scenario: Opening large XML files in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel

In this scenario, Akhil, a financial analyst, wants to update an 11MB Word XML file with data from a 29.9MB Excel

spreadsheet that is also in XML format. He opens Windows Explorer and locates the file server folder that holds

the files. He selects both files, presses Enter, and waits for the files to display.

We timed 2 tasks:

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ClearCube R1200 User Manual Page 3

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