From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jonathan Day Subject: Questions regarding network drivers Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2006 19:06:00 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <771883.63085.qm@web31512.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Return-path: Received: from web31512.mail.mud.yahoo.com ([68.142.198.141]:54664 "HELO web31512.mail.mud.yahoo.com") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S1424242AbWKJDGC (ORCPT ); Thu, 9 Nov 2006 22:06:02 -0500 To: netdev@vger.kernel.org Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org Hi, I've got an interesting problem to contend with and need some advice from the great wise ones here. First of all, is it possible (and/or "reasonable practice") when developing a network driver to do zero-copy transfers between main memory and the network device? Secondly, the network device is only designed to work with short packets and I really want to keep the throughput up. My thought was that if I fired off an interrupt then transfer a page of data into an area I know is safe, the kernel will have enough time to find a new safe area and post the address before the next page is ready to send. Can anyone suggest why this wouldn't work or, assuming it can work, why this would be a Bad Idea? Lastly, assuming my sanity lasts that long, would I be correct in assuming that the first step in the process of getting the driver peer-reviewed and accepted would be to post the patches here? Thanks for any help, Jonathan Day ____________________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Music Unlimited Access over 1 million songs. http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited