I understand that ISA devices have a greater interrupt latency than PCI
devices. Does this greater latency deteriorate overall system performance
or just the device whose interrupts are being serviced?
I've got 2 10Mbps Ethernet cards, one is an ISA card and the other PCI. I
use the ISA card as a secondary net device (eth1) which is connected to a
cable modem. Given that the cable modem will never saturate a 10Mbps
Ethernet card, the ISA/PCI question shouldn't be relevant to networking
performance. I chose to use the ISA card because it leaves another PCI
slot in my box (i686-based Linux 2.4.x) available for other uses.
Let me add one more thing to this context. The PCI card is a 3Com 3C590
"Vortex" so, according to the Linux doc, this device has busmastering
capabilities. Is this a factor in overall system performance?
Any thoughts on this? Please cc me with any responses as I am not a
subscriber to this list.
Thank you.
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