>        I can't speak to AIX, I use Solaris but I just converted all of
>my volumes from mounted, VXFS ones to RAW and the performance difference
>has been huge. ...

This might be an indication that file system operations in that environment
- particulary, sync() - may be quite expensive.  Many are the variations in
operating systems and file systems, and their current algorithms, which can
influence differences.  Good to hear that you achieved such benefits.

  Richard Sims, BU