VanLUG Email Archive
> Hmmm. I don't know how "clean" Linux's networking code is, but
> the memory bandwidth of a typical Linux CPU is much higher than
> the bandwidth of a typical Linux network interface so for us
> common folks that don't have 155 Mb/s access to a backbone
> there's no "massive performance penalty."
But common folk do have access to hundred megabit Ethernet. (Cards
are as low as $35 these days, and 4-port hubs are around $150.) A
P166 needs every ounce of help it can get in filling a pipe like
this.
A 400 MHz PII can do it quite handily, I'm sure, but Gigabit Ethernet
is not very far away.
> Presumably this
> decision was made to simplify the code and thus make it *more*
> portable, not less.
There are no portability concerns in this particular area. It does
make the code simpler, I suppose, but not much. And there are so
many other things that really would help a *lot* to simplify the
network stack....
You know, I've had this argument several times over the past year
or two, but never, ever with someone who's actually read that code.
I wonder why?
cjs
Curt Sampson
Info at http://www.portal.ca/
Internet Portal Services, Inc. Through infinite mist, software reverberates
Vancouver, BC (604) 257-9400 In code possess'd of invisible folly.