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Date:      Sat, 11 Jun 2011 20:55:33 +0200
From:      Luigi Rizzo <rizzo@iet.unipi.it>
To:        "K. Macy" <kmacy@freebsd.org>
Cc:        freebsd-net@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD I/OAT (QuickData now?) driver
Message-ID:  <20110611185533.GA67980@onelab2.iet.unipi.it>
In-Reply-To: <BANLkTi=VspGAjP2W9ttLHpw%2BcH1SESyVFQ@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <BANLkTinuOS_yZYrqZ4cmU4cim%2BKFHNA=hQ@mail.gmail.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.1106111645010.44950@fledge.watson.org> <20110611181352.GA67777@onelab2.iet.unipi.it> <BANLkTi=VspGAjP2W9ttLHpw%2BcH1SESyVFQ@mail.gmail.com>

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On Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 08:07:18PM +0200, K. Macy wrote:
> > I'd really encourage people to look at the code (e.g. the pkt-gen.c
> > program, which is part of the archive) so you can see how easy it
> > is to use.
> 
> Provided one has a dedicated interface.

yes, but this doesnt mean that the host stack is disconnected. Netmap
also creates a "virtual" ring pair to talk to the host stack,
and the archive you find a orogram, bridge.c, which passes
packets between the host and the card. Depending on what you
need to do with the card, it is easy to modify this program
to process interesting packets without passing them up, etc.

I am also looking at other options, eg. a "mixed" mode where
certain packets (e.g. depending on the MAC address) retain
the usual path, whereas others stay in the netmap ring.
Of course when you need to replicate packets (multicast/broadcast)
you have to pay the price somewhere -- even the 85299 (intel 10G
controller) can do some replication in hardware but it
takes some precious PCIe and memory bus cycles to do so.

This said, one should consider that going fast and being
completely general don't go well together -- you don't do
F1 races with a minivan, and don't carry large groups of
people around with an F1 car. I don't think we'll ever manage
to have both at the same time. It is good to have a
"transformer" vehicle though!

cheers
luigi



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