Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sat, 9 Jun 2001 00:44:13 +0100 | From | Jonathan Morton <> | Subject | Re: VM Report was:Re: Break 2.4 VM in five easy steps |
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[ Re-entering discussion after too long a day and a long sleep... ]
>> There is the problem in terms of some people want pure interactive >> performance, while others are looking for throughput over all else, >> but those are both extremes of the spectrum. Though I suspect >> raw throughput is the less wanted (in terms of numbers of systems) >> than keeping interactive response good during VM pressure. > >And this raises a very very important point: raw throughtput wins >enterprise-like benchmarks, and the enterprise people are the ones who pay >most of hackers here. (including me and Rik)
Very true. As well as the fact that interactivity is much harder to measure. The question is, what is interactivity (from the kernel's perspective)? It usually means small(ish) processes with intermittent working-set and CPU requirements. These types of process can safely be swapped out when not immediately in use, but the kernel has to be able to page them in quite quickly when needed. Doing that under heavy load is very non-trivial.
It can also mean multimedia applications with a continuous (maybe small) working set, a continuous but not 100% CPU usage, and the special property that the user WILL notice if this process gets swapped out even briefly. mpg123 and XMMS fall into this category, and I sometimes tried running these alongside my compilation tests to see how they fared. I think I had it going fairly well towards the end, with mpg123 stuttering relatively rarely and briefly while VM load was high.
On the subject of Mike Galbraith's kernel compilation test, how much physical RAM does he have for his machine, what type of CPU is it, and what (approximate) type of device does he use for swap? I'll see if I can partially duplicate his results at this end. So far all my tests have been done with a fast CPU - perhaps I should try the P166/MMX or even try loading linux-pmac onto my 8100.
-------------------------------------------------------------- from: Jonathan "Chromatix" Morton mail: chromi@cyberspace.org (not for attachments)
The key to knowledge is not to rely on people to teach you it.
GCS$/E/S dpu(!) s:- a20 C+++ UL++ P L+++ E W+ N- o? K? w--- O-- M++$ V? PS PE- Y+ PGP++ t- 5- X- R !tv b++ DI+++ D G e+ h+ r++ y+(*)
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