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Date:      Tue, 29 Jun 1999 15:22:56 -0600
From:      Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com>
To:        Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>
Cc:        vanmaren@cs.utah.edu (Kevin Van maren), freebsd-smp@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: high-efficiency SMP locks - submission for review
Message-ID:  <199906292122.PAA09761@mt.sri.com>
In-Reply-To: <199906292115.OAA26919@usr08.primenet.com>
References:  <199906291705.LAA20627@zane.cs.utah.edu> <199906292115.OAA26919@usr08.primenet.com>

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> > Just a quick summary (from my point of view):
> > 1) Multi-threading the kernel will require locking, not just spl().
> > 2) Locking will likely slow down uni-processor systems.
> 
> Locking in combination with multithreading should actually speed
> up uniprocessor systems.
> 
> The SVR4.2 (UnixWare 2.0) release was ~15% faster on UP, *with*
> locking, due to the fact that a lot of th UP code benefitted
> from deserialization of multiple simultaneous kernel operations.

I'm in extreme doubt that any of this was due to locking, and was
probably due to re-coding some of the less effecient algorithms and or
better design.  Re-design can cause this, but locking is *never* an
optimization, just a necessary evil.

Re-design your system to do a multi-threaded design, but the 'simple'
solution of adding locking is in no way going to speed up the kernel.
And, I don't see FreeBSD doing a completely new kernel design anytime in
near future, that's what John Dyson's G2 kernel stuff is supposed to
be. :)


Nate


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