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Date:      Tue, 24 Oct 1995 18:43:30 +1000
From:      Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
To:        dennis@etinc.com, terry@lambert.org
Cc:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Bragging rights..
Message-ID:  <199510240843.SAA06640@godzilla.zeta.org.au>

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>> I really can't believe you guys are bragging about the widespread
>> utilization of 
>> souped-up async. You still don't get the fact that you're losing several
>> hundred dollars
>> worth of machine (which brings the cost in-line with sync) to save a few
>> hundred on 
>> cards for a less-efficient solution.

How much less efficient?  For logins, even a local ethernet is only a few
times more efficient than 115200 bps async through a 16450.  This is
mostly because the pty implementation is poor.

Actual measurements:

$ # Throughput:
$ sh -c "od /kernel | head -10000 | wc"
649244
$login-through-sio0 time sh -c "od /kernel | head -10000"
...
57.51 8.04 2.07
$ expr 64924400 / 5751
11289 # bytes/sec
$login-through-ethernet time sh -c "od /kernel | head -10000"
17.49 real 6.61 user 2.17 sys
$ expr 64924400 / 1749
37120 # bytes/second
$ # Ethernet is only 3 times faster than async serial :-(.

$ # Server is 486DX/33
$ # `count' is a cpu hog process that does nothing atoi(argv[1]) times
$idle-server time count 50000000
7.71 real 7.61 user 0.03 sys
$ # Client is 486DX2/66
$idle-client time count 100000000
7.58 real 7.55 user 0.91 sys

$ # Server's UART is 16450.
$server-writing-infinite-od-output-to-sio0 time count 50000000
11.08 real 8.90 user 0.03 sys
$ expr \( 1108 - 771 \) \* 1000 / 1108
304 # overhead 30.4%
$ # Other measurements show that serial write overhead on this system is 19.5%

$ # Client's UART is 16550.
$client-reading-infinite-od-output-from-sio0 time count 100000000
8.79 real 7.88 user 0.03 sys
$ expr \( 879 - 758 \) \* 1000 / 879
137 # overhead 13.7%
$ # Other measurements show that serial read overhead on this system is 6.3%

$ # Server's ethernet is WD8013EBT.
$server-writing-infinite-od-output-to-ethernet time count 50000000
17.39 real 7.60 user 0.03 sys
$ expr \( 1739 - 771 \) \* 1000 / 1108
556 # overhead 55.6%
$ expr 556 \* 11289 / 37120 \* 100 / 304
55 # relative ethernet overhead is 55% of 16450 overhead :-(.

$ # Client's ethernet is WD8013EBT.
$client-reading-infinite-od-output-from-ethernet time count 100000000
8.83 real 7.45 user 0.03 sys
$ expr \( 883 - 758 \) \* 1000 / 883
141 # overhead 14.1%
$ expr 141 \* 11289 / 37120 \* 100 / 137
30 # relative ethernet overhead is 30% of 16550 overhead :-(.

Bruce



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