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Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2002 20:28:29 -0500 (EST)
From: Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
To: Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [2.4.17/18pre] VM and swap - it's really unusable
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On Wed, 9 Jan 2002, Kent Borg wrote:

> How does all this fit into doing a tick-less kernel?
> 
> There is something appealing about doing stuff only when there is
> stuff to do, like: respond to input, handle some device that becomes
> ready, or let another process run for a while.  Didn't IBM do some
> nice work on this for Linux?  (*Was* it nice work?)  I was under the
> impression that the current kernel isn't that far from being tickless.
> 
> A tickless kernel would be wonderful for battery powered devices that
> could literally shut off when there be nothing to do, and it seems it
> would (trivially?) help performance on high end power hogs too.
> 
> Why do we have regular HZ ticks?  (Other than I think I remember Linus
> saying that he likes them.)  

Feel free to quantify the savings over the current setup with max power
saving enabled in the kernel. I just don't see how "wonderful" it would
be, given that an idle system currently uses very little battery if you
setup the options to save power.

-- 
bill davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
  CTO, TMR Associates, Inc
Doing interesting things with little computers since 1979.

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