Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Sun, 4 Nov 2001 03:09:14 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Sun, 4 Nov 2001 03:09:04 -0500 Received: from postfix2-2.free.fr ([213.228.0.140]:20149 "HELO postfix2-2.free.fr") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id convert rfc822-to-8bit; Sun, 4 Nov 2001 03:08:49 -0500 Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2001 06:23:47 +0100 (CET) From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?G=E9rard_Roudier?= X-X-Sender: To: "Justin T. Gibbs" Cc: Stephan von Krawczynski , Subject: Re: Adaptec vs Symbios performance In-Reply-To: <200111040547.fA45ldY64666@aslan.scsiguy.com> Message-ID: <20011104060334.Y706-100000@gerard> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sat, 3 Nov 2001, Justin T. Gibbs wrote: [...] > >I can see _both_ comparing aic with symbios. > > I'm not sure that you would see much of a difference if you set the > symbios driver to use 253 commands per-device. I haven't looked at This is discouraged. :) Better, IMO, to compare behaviours with realistic queue depths. As you know, more than 64 for hard disks does not make sense (yet). Personnaly, I use 64 under FreeBSD and 16 under Linux. Guess why ? :-) > the sym driver for some time, but last I remember it does not use > a bottom half handler and handles queue throttling internally. It There is no BH in the driver. The stock sym53c8xx even uses scsi_obsolete that requires more load in interrupt context for command completion. SYM-2 that comes back from FreeBSD uses the EH threaded stuff that just queues to a BH on completion. Stephan may want to give SYM-2 a try, IMO. > may perform less work at interrupt time than the aic7xxx driver if > locally queued I/O is compiled into a format suitable for controller > consumption rather than queue the ScsiCmnd structure provided by > the mid-layer. The aic7xxx driver has to convert a ScsiCmnd into a > controller data structure to service an internal queue and this can > take a bit of time. The sym* drivers also uses an internal data structure to handle I/Os. The SCSI script does not know about any O/S specific data structure. > I would be interresting if there is a disparity in the TPS numbers > and tag depths in your comparisons. Higher tag depth usually means > higher TPS which may also mean less interactive response from the > system. All things being equal, I would expect the sym and aic7xxx > drivers to perform about the same. Agreed. G?rard. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/