Performance efficiency is the backbone of system stability. As part of my IS 215 research, I conducted a performance assessment comparing a single-core (t2.micro) instance against a multi-core (t2.medium) instance.
Using the stress tool and real-time monitoring, I observed several key differences:
- Utilization Efficiency: Under identical workloads, the single-core instance reached 11.2% utilization, while the multi-core instance only reached 6.0%, effectively halving the strain by distributing tasks.
- Load Average Scalability: The single-core system experienced significantly higher "pressure," with a maximum load of 0.16 compared to the multi-core’s 0.08.
- System Recovery: Multi-core systems demonstrated a superior ability to clear process queues, returning to an idle state immediately after stress, whereas the single-core system lagged behind.
This data confirms that while single-core systems handle tasks sequentially, parallel processing in multi-core architectures is vital for maintaining responsiveness during high-demand spikes.