Stored Procedure/Prepared St

Can anyone explain what's faster, a prepared sql stmt or a stored procedure? Let's say a program like this: 1- . . stmt1 = "update tab_name set col1 = ?" prepare quid from stmt1 while true var1 = host-var execute quid using var1 . . or a program like this: . . 2- while true var1 = host-var execute procedure proc1(var1) . . From a performance standpoint; - which one will be faster? - which one will requiere less memory? - which one will cause less pippe traffic between the front-end and the back-end? - which one will cause less disk access? Thanks very much Agostino