Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Atom N270 more efficent with int 0x80 than with syscalls | From | Alex Buell <> | Date | Sat, 26 Jun 2010 10:20:11 +0100 |
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Recently I rewrote a small assembler program to test timings and print out timing informations for various assembly routines. Then I thought to add tests for timings on int 0x80 and calling via syscalls.
Now I know int 0x80 calls are expensive on processors such as the Pentium IV but someone has tested my assembly program with their Atom N270 1.6GHz system, and int 0x80s calls are actually much quicker than syscalls on these processors.
Here's the test program that exposed the timing differences with these int 0x80 calls and syscalls: http://www.munted.org.uk/programming/newtimer.zip
Perhaps the kernel could be greatly speeded up on certain processors if it dynamically adapts to use the quickest type of system calls? -- http://www.munted.org.uk
One very high maintenance cat living here.
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