In this paper we answer the question "Where does time go when a database system is executed on a modern computer platform?" We examine four commercial DBMSs running on an Intel Xeon and NT 4.0. We introduce a framework for analyzing query execution time on a DBMS running on a server with a modern processor and memory architecture. To focus on processor and memory interactions and exclude effects from the I/O subsystem, we use a memory resident database. Using simple queries we find that database developers should (a) optimize data placement for the second level of data cache, and not the first, (b) optimize instruction placement to reduce first-level instruction cache stalls, but (c) not expect the overall execution time to decrease significantly without addressing stalls related to subtle implementation issues (e.g., branch prediction).

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