Simmultanous Connections (fwd)

Can anyone here help?

Vince.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 08:52:06 +0000
From: Jude Weaver <exec@shreve.net>
To: webmaster@postgresql.org
Subject: Simmultanous Connections

We are a company that writes academic software . We are converting our
software to use  either PostgreSQL or MySQL. We are leaning toward
PostgreSQL, but, I still have several questions.
I hope someone can answer these for me.

1.  I have read the Q&A for postgreSQL and would like to know the
difference between a temporary
     and a permanant connection. Do you have a connection when you open
the database or only when
      the frontend sends a job to the backend? If 32 people are running
a module that opens a database
       is that 32 connections or will it vary as users read and write to
the database?

2. I saw in the Q&A that to run more than 32 simmultanous connects could
be a big drain on our re-
    sources. Our  Linux boxes , in general, are Intel 166 to 500s, 128MG
of RAM and 6.2 to 13 GIG.
    Can anyone tell me roughly how much resources per connection does
PostgreSQL use?

3. If I have 90 teachers posting grades at the same time, (the grade
posting program opens 5 dif-
    ferent databases) and  25 secretaries and administrators poking
around in assorted databases
     looking at information, will postgresql handle that much traffic?

I would appreciate any information you can give me,
Thank you - Jude Weaver.