From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Michael Buesch Subject: wireless: NETDEV_TX_LOCKED, use it or not? Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 12:22:42 +0200 Message-ID: <200608191222.42899.mb@bu3sch.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: bcm43xx-dev@lists.berlios.de Return-path: Received: from static-ip-62-75-166-246.inaddr.intergenia.de ([62.75.166.246]:51937 "EHLO bu3sch.de") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751699AbWHSKXr (ORCPT ); Sat, 19 Aug 2006 06:23:47 -0400 To: netdev@vger.kernel.org Content-Disposition: inline Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org Hi, I am currently wondering, if we should use NETDEV_TX_LOCKED in the bcm43xx wireless net driver. I currently don't have an SMP machine with a bcm43xx card running, so I can't use benchmarks to find out. There are various things to consider: * The RX and TX-status paths, which also must take the spinlock aren't more expensive than on a normal Ethernet card (at least with d80211 stack). * But the retry-path, when a NETDEV_TX_LOCKED is returned is slightly more expensive. Well, the question is: Is it worth to return NETDEV_TX_LOCKED on spinlock contention, or is it better to spin? Is NETDEV_TX_LOCKED only desired on gigabit ethernet? Thanks. -- Greetings Michael.