From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261329AbTDMSMT (for ); Sun, 13 Apr 2003 14:12:19 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261369AbTDMSMT (for ); Sun, 13 Apr 2003 14:12:19 -0400 Received: from parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk ([195.92.249.252]:17333 "EHLO www.linux.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261329AbTDMSMT (for ); Sun, 13 Apr 2003 14:12:19 -0400 Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2003 19:24:05 +0100 From: "Dr. David Alan Gilbert" To: Chuck Ebbert <76306.1226@compuserve.com> Cc: linux-kernel Subject: Re: Benefits from computing physical IDE disk geometry? Message-ID: <20030413182405.GG676@gallifrey> References: <200304131407_MC3-1-3441-57C7@compuserve.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200304131407_MC3-1-3441-57C7@compuserve.com> X-Chocolate: 70 percent or better cocoa solids preferably X-Operating-System: Linux/2.5.66 (i686) X-Uptime: 19:20:42 up 2 days, 6 min, 1 user, load average: 0.04, 0.05, 0.06 User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org * Chuck Ebbert (76306.1226@compuserve.com) wrote: > OTOH you can come up with scenarios like, say, a DBMS doing 16K page > aligned IO to raw devices where you might see big gains from making sure > those 16K chunks didn't cross a physical cylinder boundary. Maybe true; but figuring out where the drive really puts your sectors these days ain't that easy; what with remapping and multiple different densities on the platter. Now given these discs have processors on board isn't it about time someone improved the disc interface standards to push some of the intelligence drivewards? I guess with enough intelligence the drive could do free block allocation and could do things like copying blocks around for you. Dave ---------------- Have a happy GNU millennium! ---------------------- / Dr. David Alan Gilbert | Running GNU/Linux on Alpha,68K| Happy \ \ gro.gilbert @ treblig.org | MIPS,x86,ARM,SPARC,PPC & HPPA | In Hex / \ _________________________|_____ http://www.treblig.org |_______/