Simon,
Thank you your detailed reply (sorry for not being able to reply earlier - busy with upgrade/downgrade project)...
What I understand from you is that sp_monitorconfig does provide you with the accurate measurement of PC utilization. The two hefty MDAs mislead - at least until SP 130.
Can I venture a few more questions?
I won't go into TF 753/7/8 - relevant but will skip for now. I do want to check about ELC.
(1) PC is, to simplify, ELC + GC (global cache) + SC (statement cache). ELC is, to simplify, the dynamically growing part of PC where engines operate (run their tasks). I am confused, though, about the PC global cache. ASE operates in tasks, ergo all its activity should take place in ELC. What takes place in GC? Is it a sort of "repository" to grab free memory allocations for ELC/SC?
(2) ASE has two famous dbcc commands for PC: flush_elc and free_unused. Where each of these operate?
(3) ASE starts up wit ELC preconfigured (may be changed in late versions). sp_monitorconfig for the freshly started ASE will display 0% active. Does it mean that first x% active reported by monitorconfig relate to engines operating in pure ELC space (no grab from GC), while from the moment the x% is crossed, GC->ELC memory movement begins (hence more spinlock contention on PC)? At what point ASE requests engines to cleanup its ELC (do they shrink back to the preconfigured value at all)?
Andrew