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To: Andre Oppermann <andre@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: polling's future [was: Re: Dynamic Ticks/HZ]
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From: "Poul-Henning Kamp" <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>
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Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2012 10:27:37 +0000
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Cc: Davide Italiano <davide@freebsd.org>, Ryan Stone <rysto32@gmail.com>,
 Joe Holden <lists@rewt.org.uk>, Luigi Rizzo <rizzo@iet.unipi.it>,
 FreeBSD Current <current@freebsd.org>
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--------
In message <5098E526.6070101@freebsd.org>, Andre Oppermann writes:

>Hi Luigi,
>
>do you agree on polling having outlived its usefulness in the light
>of interrupt moderating NIC's and SMP complications/disadvantages?

Can I just point out, that what we have is not in fact "device-polling"
but only "some-kinds-of-network-interface-polling" ?

I think it should go away, and if there still is a relevant
usage segment, be replaced by _real_ "device-polling" which is
not tied to the network stack.

Amongst the sensible uses for that would be high-speed serial
interfaces etc.

-- 
Poul-Henning Kamp       | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20
phk@FreeBSD.ORG         | TCP/IP since RFC 956
FreeBSD committer       | BSD since 4.3-tahoe    
Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.