Network performance in a dual CPU system

[lukem.freebsd at cse.unsw.edu.au]

On Sat, 11 Feb 2006, dima wrote:
> There are several software (FreeBSD specific) options though:

> 1. You should surely try polling(4). 50kpps mean 50000 interrupts and 
> the same amount of context switches, which are quite expensive.

While this was true in the 80's, it is blatantly wrong for any decent 
modern network interface. Every gigabit card I've used has had some form 
of interrupt mitigation. Usually this takes the form of one or more timers 
which limit the maximum interrupt rate.

-- 
Luke