Re: [linux-audio-dev] low-latency scheduling patch for 2.4.0

yodaiken
2001-01-21T00:13:57Z

On Fri, Jan 12, 2001 at 07:45:43PM -0700, Jay Ts wrote:
> Andrew Morton wrote:
> >
> > Jay Ts wrote:
> > >
> > > Now about the only thing left is to get it included
> > > in the standard kernel. Do you think Linus Torvalds is more likely
> > > to accept these patches than Ingo's? I sure hope this one works out.
> >
> > We (or "he") need to decide up-front that Linux is to become
> > a low latency kernel. Then we need to decide the best way of
> > doing that.
> >
> > Making the kernel internally preemptive is probably the best way of
> > doing this. But it's a *big* task
>
> Ouch. Yes, I agree that the ideal path is for Linus and the other
> kernel developers and ... well, just about everyone ... is to create
> a long-range strategy and 'roadmap' that includes support for low-latency.
>
> And making the kernel preemptive might be the best way to do that
> (and I'm saying "might"...).

Keep in mind that Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie did not decide on a
non-preemptive strategy for UNIX because they were unaware of such
methods or because they were stupid. And when Rob Pike redesigned a new
"unix" Plan9 note there is no-preemptive kernel, and the core Linux
designers have rejected preemptive kernels too. Now it is certainly possible
that things have change and/or all these folks are just plain wrong. But
I wouldn't bet too much on it.

--
---------------------------------------------------------
Victor Yodaiken
Finite State Machine Labs: The RTLinux Company.
www.fsmlabs.com www.rtlinux.com