Reply to post: Re: Alternative title

BBC bypasses Linux kernel to make streaming videos flow

Doctor Syntax Silver badge

Re: Alternative title

"These include better use of scatter/gather features of the NIC or DMA "

Which NIC or DMA?

If you tie the S/W to specific H/W, e.g. a particular model of NIC then you lose the ability to plug in different H/W. If you provide for alternative H/W you end up with a modular structure which has its own overhead. I'm not saying that something which has grown at the rate the Linux kernel has is going to be the result of a whole series of ideal decisions (I can think of a few I disagree with) but if you try to do everything there are going to be trade-offs.

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