Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:34:52 +0100
From:      Joerg Sonnenberger <joerg@britannica.bec.de>
To:        freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: assigning interrupts
Message-ID:  <20081113173452.GA8646@britannica.bec.de>
In-Reply-To: <20081113165631.GA26469@icarus.home.lan>
References:  <491BFB68.7050405@infoweapons.com> <20081113104054.GA17501@icarus.home.lan> <20081113154003.GC1750@britannica.bec.de> <20081113165631.GA26469@icarus.home.lan>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 08:56:31AM -0800, Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> Regarding "it means you can still get interrupt sharing", I'd like to
> hear more about why/how that's possible with a system sporting at least
> one I/O APIC.

You still have a limited number of interrupt lines. Many non-highend
mainboards have 4 or 8 interrupt lines. You often have more than 8 PCI
devices that want interrupts (e.g. VGA, audio, 3 USB controllers, 1 EHCI
contoller and the SATA controller are enough to consume all lines).
As soon as you now add a new network devices, you end up sharing PCI
lines. The IO-APIC wiring is also often fixed, so it can't be controlled
by software.

Joerg



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20081113173452.GA8646>