The FIX engine processed more than 3 billion financial messages (inbound and outbound) with an average parse and transmission latency of less than 10 µs with a standard deviation of 3.9 µs.

The tests were conducted on Intel Xeon x5570 processors using the Microsoft .NET FrameworkTM 3.5 and Windows Server 2008TM in the Intel Labs in the UK; access to the latest processors were part of achieving this result. An average of 12,000 messages per second were sent and received across 140 sessions over a three-day period. More than 190MB of data per minute was sent and received on the network. Measurements were performed at the application and socket layers.

Garbage collection had no discernible impact over the run period, and no garbage collection was observed in the steady state operating mode. RA Generation ZeroTM technology aims to eliminate the effects of garbage collection on low latency applications by a combination of intelligent design and coding practices. No memory or thread leaks were detected.

RA and Microsoft have released a white paper, 'Building Low Latency Applications for Financial Markets,' describing this approach in more detail. This can be downloaded from the Rapid Addition website and will soon be available on the Microsoft website.

Microsoft U.S. Capital Markets Industry Solutions Director Craig Saint-Amour, said: "Very high-performance FIX financial message processing, combined with Microsoft's familiar, easy-to-use and widely supported platform,is a winning combination for Wall Street. We are very excited about the benefits RA-Cheetah Professional brings to our mutual capital markets customers."

Rapid Addition is a leading supplier of front-office messaging components to the global electronic markets. Founder and chairman Kevin Houstoun, who has been one of the leading innovators in this market since helping bring the FIX Protocol to Europe in the 1990s, said:

"Latency matters - being a few microseconds slower than competitors can cost our clients millions. Rapid Addition is at the forefront in pushing performance boundaries and thus being able to give our clients an undoubted competitive edge. We continue to advance in area in this area and expect to make more announcements shortly."