On Mon, Mar 04, 2002 at 06:34:33PM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
> > > Thats up to the network adapter. In fact the Linux drivers mostly do
> > > keep preloaded with full sized buffers and only copy if the packet size
> > > is small (and copying 1 or 2 cache lines isnt going to hurt anyone)
> >
> > There's an increase in latency. For my application, I have no
>
> A very tiny one (especially if you keep a small buffer pool around too).
> To copy a packet is 2 cache line loads, which will dominate, some
> writes that you wont be able to measure, and a writeback you won't be
> able to instrument without a bus analyser.
>
> For receive paths its up to the driver. The copy to smaller buffer is
> something the driver can choose to do. It and it alone decide what skbuff
> to throw at the kernel core
>
> The bigger ring helping is interesting but itself begs a question. Do you
> ever dirty rather than merely reference skbuff data. In that case a bigger
Actually, I am plugging in my own data blocks into the skbuff->data
pointer from the drivers themselves. When the driver allocates an
skbuff, I use an alternate cache allocator to load the buffer
into the skbuff, and I leave the two attached. skb_release_data does
not release one of my data blocks. These blocks are 4K aligned so
I am not in the middle of a cache line (I think) in the data portion
when DMA is initiated.
> ring may simply be hiding the fact that the recycled skbuff has dirty
> cached data that has to be written back. Does the combination of hardware
This is probably happening. I have an Arium here now, and am hooking
it up. I can get memory bus traces and provide what's actually
happening on the bus. I do not ever DMA into a partial cache line.
Jeff
> you have do the right thing when it comes to the invalidating - and do
> you ever DMA into a partial cache line ?
>
> Alan
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Mar 07 2002 - 21:00:36 EST