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Date:      Sat, 8 Apr 1995 09:47:37 -0700 (PDT)
From:      "Rodney W. Grimes" <rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com>
To:        taob@gate.sinica.edu.tw (Brian Tao)
Cc:        freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: Disk performance
Message-ID:  <199504081647.JAA15531@gndrsh.aac.dev.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSI.3.91.950408171607.787F-100000@aries.ibms.sinica.edu.tw> from "Brian Tao" at Apr 8, 95 05:34:02 pm

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> 
> On Sat, 8 Apr 1995, Rodney W. Grimes wrote:
...
> > Yes, IDE drives load the cpu down far more, as they not only have to
> > bcopy the bytes to and from user land, they also have to bcopy them
> > to and from the disk.
> 
>     I presume that EIDE drives and drivers that support DMA wouldn't
> suffer from this particular deficiency then.  Sorry, I don't mean to
> pick your brains in public like this.  I hope someone else is learning
> the basics of disk transfer too.  :)

EIDE drives that support mode 2 DMA would not suffer from this problem
if the FreeBSD drives also supported mode 2 DMA.

...
> > Especially with out detailed information about how the kernel implements
> > the buffer copies to and from user land.  I'm pretty sure the SGI boxes
> > use page flipping,
> 
>     Hmmm, the only page flipping I know of is a double-buffered
> animation technique used on the Apple II hi-res graphics screen.  :)

Same concept, different use.  Basically you swap the users buffer
for a kernel buffer by bit flipping in the vm system, this saves
the bcopy operation, just like it does for graphics page flipping.

-- 
Rod Grimes                                      rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com
Accurate Automation Company                   Custom computers for FreeBSD



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