Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list netdev); Wed, 18 Sep 2002 13:28:19 -0700 (PDT) Received: from pizda.ninka.net (IDENT:root@pizda.ninka.net [216.101.162.242]) by oss.sgi.com (8.12.5/8.12.5) with SMTP id g8IKSDtG013250 for ; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 13:28:13 -0700 Received: from localhost (IDENT:davem@localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by pizda.ninka.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id NAA23631; Wed, 18 Sep 2002 13:23:34 -0700 Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 13:23:34 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <20020918.132334.102949210.davem@redhat.com> To: ebiederm@xmission.com Cc: hadi@cyberus.ca, akpm@digeo.com, manfred@colorfullife.com, netdev@oss.sgi.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Info: NAPI performance at "low" loads From: "David S. Miller" In-Reply-To: References: <20020917.180014.07882539.davem@redhat.com> X-Mailer: Mew version 2.1 on Emacs 21.1 / Mule 5.0 (SAKAKI) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-archive-position: 259 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: netdev-bounce@oss.sgi.com Errors-to: netdev-bounce@oss.sgi.com X-original-sender: davem@redhat.com Precedence: bulk X-list: netdev From: ebiederm@xmission.com (Eric W. Biederman) Date: 18 Sep 2002 11:27:34 -0600 "David S. Miller" writes: > {in,out}{b,w,l}() operations have a fixed timing, therefore his > results doesn't sound that far off. ???? I don't see why they should be. If it is a pci device the cost should the same as a pci memory I/O. The bus packets are the same. So things like increasing the pci bus speed should make it take less time. The x86 processor has a well defined timing for executing inb etc. instructions, the timing is fixed and is independant of the speed of the PCI bus the device is on.