From: ets1@cec2.wustl.edu (Eric Thomas Stuebe) Subject: Re: Benchmarking under Linux (was Re: New 486 Suggestions? Date: 6 Sep 1992 21:25:56 GMT
In article <1992Sep4.100706.12473@klaava.Helsinki.FI> torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds) writes:
>But processor speed can be very important under linux: not just for the
>obvious user-level speedup, but due to better response to disk-drive
>interrupts and the like. Faster machines may simply read the disk at
>the full 1:1 interleave - with slower systems, it's possible that the HD
>driver doesn't keep up, and you get the dreaded 1-block/rotation
>syndrome, which really hurts when swapping. This problem is probably
>especially notable on 386SX machines: the 386 interrupt handling is
>inherently slow, but if the memory badwidth is further reduced by the
>16-bit bus, interrupt response is probably ever worse.
> Linus
What would you guess that the odds are that this is actually happening to
anybody? I'm running on the most basic Linux-capable system--16 Mhz 386sx,
with just 2M of RAM--so I expect that I'm getting hit by it if it's happening
to anyone. I plan on repartitioning my hard drive soon anyway, I could
reformat with a 2:1 or even 3:1 interleave at the same time...but I thought
that the days of 3:1 interleaves were gone forever when I moved into double-
digit Mhz ratings.