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Date:      Sun, 28 Jan 1996 15:13:01 -0700 (MST)
From:      Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
To:        jbrann@panix.com (John Brann)
Cc:        hackers@freefall.freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Good news -- pipe stuff
Message-ID:  <199601282213.PAA01665@phaeton.artisoft.com>
In-Reply-To: <199601281923.OAA07191@jbrann> from "John Brann" at Jan 28, 96 02:21:47 pm

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> > > I read the Lai/Baker paper: in "Figure 1", FreeBSD kicks some serious
> > > butt on context switches -- it appears to be both flat and linear past
> > > 200 processes (the limit of the graph in the figure).
> > 
> > Actually, at a later talk it came out that Linux had substantially
> > improved this in the current release.  However, both this talk and
> > Larry McVoy's talk that followed it were wastes of paper and time for
> > all concerned.
>
> [remainder of Jordan's analysis removed]

> I downloaded and read the Lai/Baker paper.  I agree that it was clearly 
> shallow, but I don't think I've ever seen any worthwhile cross-OS or
> cross-machine performance comparisons.  Anything beyond the grossest
> conclusions (Solaris seems a bit slow) are hard to be convincing about.

Jordan's problem seems to have been with the presentation, and the
conclusions drawn in the presentation but not present in the paper.

If Jordan were merely attacking the paper, I'd agree with you, but
since it is the presentation of the paper, neither you nor I can
really comment on Jordan's statements other than to take them as an
honest report of the presentation.

As far as my opinion of the paper, well, at least part of it is on record
in the pipe code discussion.

That said, if it didn't show up for you, Larry McVoy has a well known
Linux bias, but I would guess it was his enthusiasm, not intellectual
dishonesty, that caused him to ignore the hardware differences in his
paper.


					Terry Lambert
					terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.



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