I created two computers with identical hardware, and run the benchmark programs in both starting at the same exact time.

What makes no sense is that the computer that has the lower average index (121) finished the race a good 30 minutes ahead of the computer wich showed the higher avg index (167). The only difference here were the operating systems, which I am not naming yet because it may have commercial implications, and frankly I need to understand the results before jumping to conclusions. Maybe lower index means better system? That would be absurd.

Anybody has any idea about what is happenning?


TEST BASELINE RESULT INDEX

Arithmetic Test (type = double) 2541.7 1062680.6 418.1
Dhrystone 2 without register variables 22366.3 5043054.8 225.5
Execl Throughput Test 16.5 132.0 8.0
File Copy (30 seconds) 179.0 10549.0 58.9
Pipe-based Context Switching Test 1318.5 2091.5 1.6
Shell scripts (8 concurrent) 4.0 63.3 15.8
=========
SUM of 6 items 727.9
AVERAGE 121.3


TEST BASELINE RESULT INDEX

Arithmetic Test (type = double) 2541.7 1156065.7 454.8
Dhrystone 2 without register variables 22366.3 7300029.6 326.4
Execl Throughput Test 16.5 63.1 3.8
File Copy (30 seconds) 179.0 38201.0 213.4
Pipe-based Context Switching Test 1318.5 3060.1 2.3
Shell scripts (8 concurrent) 4.0 24.0 6.0
=========
SUM of 6 items 1006.8
AVERAGE 167.8