Re: [announce] [patch] limiting IRQ load, irq-rewrite-2.4.11-B5

Ingo Molnar
2001-10-03T08:36:44Z

On Tue, 2 Oct 2001, jamal wrote:

> [...] please have the courtesy of at least posting results/numbers of
> how this improved things and under what workloads and conditions.
> [...]

500 MHz PIII UP server, 433 MHz client over a single 100 mbit ethernet
using Simon Kirby's udpspam tool to overload the server. Result: 2.4.10
locks up before the patch. 2.4.10 with the first generation irqrate patch
applied protects against the lockup (if max_rate is correct), but results
in dropped packets. The auto-tuning+polling patch results in a working
system and working network, no lockup and no dropped packets. Why this
happened and how it happened has been discussed extensively.

(the effect of polling-driven networking is just an extra and unintended
bonus side-effect.)

Ingo