Re: cvs commit: src/sys/dev/netif/nfe if_nfe.c if_nfevar.h

[Michael Neumann <mneumann@xxxxxxxx>]

Sepherosa Ziehau wrote:
> sephe       2008/07/05 00:29:44 PDT
>
> DragonFly src repository
>
>   Modified files:
>     sys/dev/netif/nfe    if_nfe.c if_nfevar.h 
>   Log:
>   Use hardware timer to simulate interrupt moderation.
>   
>   hw.nfeX.imtimer -> 0  no interrupt moderation at all.

With this setting I get:

  intr 10 at 40001/40000 hz, livelocked limit engaged!
  intr 10 at 3258/20000 hz, livelock removed

and transfer speed of around 30 MB/sec.

>   hw.nfeX.imtimer -> -Y hardware timer simulated interrupt moderation,
>                         the simultated interrupt moderation timer will
>                         be set to Y.

A value of -125 here increases transfer speed to >90 MB/sec and shows no
livelocks.

Note that this is measured transfering a big file from hammer which is
saved to /dev/null on the client side as otherwise my laptops hard disk
would be the limiting factor.

A value of 92-97 MB/sec is pretty good I think (for ftp). I'm looking
for a better way to test the throughput of the box (I don't want to be
the servers hard-disk the limiting factor). Any recommendations? I tried
netcat but that doesn't seem to work. Note that my client is FreeBSD
(and network interface bge).

Could I expect an even higher throughput when setting hw.nfeX.imtimer to
-250 (together with changing the rx_ring_count)?

Thanks for this great work!

Regards,

  Michael

>   hw.nfeX.imtimer -> Y  hardware timer only interrupt moderation,
>                         hardware timer will be set to Y.
>   
>   Set hw.nfeX.imtimer to -125 (8000Hz) should work on most system.
>   
>   With heavier interrupt moderation (e.g. hw.nfeX.imtimer to -250), it is
>   recommended to increase hw.nfe.rx_ring_count tunable to a higher value
>   (e.g. 512), since the default value (128) is obviously too small.
>   
>   Revision  Changes    Path
>   1.31      +104 -43   src/sys/dev/netif/nfe/if_nfe.c
>   1.9       +6 -3      src/sys/dev/netif/nfe/if_nfevar.h
>
>
> http://www.dragonflybsd.org/cvsweb/src/sys/dev/netif/nfe/if_nfe.c.diff?r1=1.30&r2=1.31&f=u
> http://www.dragonflybsd.org/cvsweb/src/sys/dev/netif/nfe/if_nfevar.h.diff?r1=1.8&r2=1.9&f=u