Reply to post: Re: Moving out of the kernel to improve performance?

BBC bypasses Linux kernel to make streaming videos flow

Ogi

Re: Moving out of the kernel to improve performance?

"Also, given the right setup (e.g. CPU isolation and pinned execution threads to reserved CPUs) there is absolutely no reason for userspace code to be slower than kernel code (also no reason to be other way around, obviously); it is about cost of context switches (also cache hotness and similar things)"

Yes, the code execution speed kernel and userspace should be the same, after all, code is code, the CPU doesn't care. It is the transition overhead of switching between kernel/user space which slows things down, along with the switch between supervisor/user mode rings (if you are using a userspace device driver for instance, which is why they are less performant than kernel drivers) .

And yes, highly tuned systems can reduce latency, especially if in addition to pinned execution, you also pin interrupts to certain cores ( core 0, so that you don't route through LAPICs on most hardware, but at this level, your workload type and the actual x86 motherboard you buy makes a hell of a difference to latency, as they all route interrupts differently :-) )

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon