Curl announced the results from a recent performance benchmark test of the Curl Rich Internet Application (RIA) platform, Version 6.0, and Adobe Flex 3.  The test aimed to compare the performance of these two RIA platforms and found the Curl language to outperform ActionScript 3, the programming language of the Adobe Flash Player runtime, by a factor of 8 to 10. This finding is particularly significant for developers seeking highly productive ways to build mission-critical, enterprise-class RIAs that require high performance capabilities.

The benchmark test, conducted by Curl engineers, comprised of implementing a JPEG encoding algorithm. This is an ideal test case for performance since JPEG encoding is a useful and common computational task. The engineers first translated an existing ActionScript program for JPEG encoding to Curl and compared the resulting performance for three images ranging from small to moderately large.

The results of the test showed that Curl retains an advantage in raw execution speed, attributed mostly to the difference in the two platforms' programming languages. While the Curl language was architected to support compiling to efficient code, Adobe's ActionScript was not. The end result is Curl's superior performance for building enterprise RIAs.

"Curl was designed to be a very powerful, high-performing language and platform, and we have always been proud of this unmatched capability," said Bert Halstead, vice president and chief architect, Curl. "However, in order to consistently demonstrate our dominance in this area, we understand the need to constantly test ourselves against other solutions on the market. The results of this test support our claims, and we will continue to expand on this study to further document Curl's superiority for enterprise RIAs."

Curl consistently outperformed Action Script in each of the three test cases. Specific results on the 2.26 GHz benchmark machine included:

• For the small image – 700 by 933, 0.65 megapixels and 72 kB in size – Curl performed in 0.16 seconds and Flex in 1.72 seconds.
• For the medium image – 1170 by 1560, 1.83 megapixels and 195 kB in size – Curl recorded 0.46 seconds with Flex at 4.43 seconds.
• For the large image – 2,560 by 1,920, 4.92 megapixels and 511 kB in size – Curl's time was 1.36 seconds, and Flex's was 11.69 seconds.

For more information on Curl contact Mark Bilotta, Mark_Bilotta@lpp.com at Lois Paul & Partners.