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Date:      Sat, 29 Jun 1996 16:49:40 +0930 (CST)
From:      Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
To:        jparnas@jparnas.cybercom.net (Jacob M. Parnas)
Cc:        chuckr@glue.umd.edu, Kevin_Swanson@BLaCKSMITH.com, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: muliport boards - building a PPP dialup server
Message-ID:  <199606290719.QAA20648@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
In-Reply-To: <199606281933.PAA04484@jparnas.cybercom.net> from "Jacob M. Parnas" at Jun 28, 96 03:33:24 pm

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Jacob M. Parnas stands accused of saying:
> 
> These days, a multiboard should at least do 115200baud in my opinion.  At
> least it can be competitive with modems.  8x115200baud is still only 1/8 
> MB/sec and 16x115200 is only 1/4 MByte/sec.  Not exactly fast.

Fast has nothing to do with it.  Interrupt rates do.

You should sit down and read some of the stuff that Bruce Evans has posted
on the subject over the years; most particularly his analysis of where the
actual load in handling serial ports comes from.  Some key points :

 - A 486 can service around 40,000 ISA interrupts per second, assuming 
   minimal interrupt processing time.
 - Most of the CPU overheard in handling serial in/output is in the tty
   layer.

> Jacob

-- 
]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer        msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au    [[
]] Genesis Software                     genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au   [[
]] High-speed data acquisition and      (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496       [[
]] realtime instrument control          (ph/fax)  +61-8-267-3039        [[
]] Collector of old Unix hardware.      "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick  [[



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