From: Adam J Richter (adam@soda.berkeley.edu)
Date: 09/18/92


From: adam@soda.berkeley.edu (Adam J Richter)
Subject: Re: Bandwidth of extended file system
Date: 18 Sep 1992 20:53:13 GMT

In article <19bevvINN55e@agate.berkeley.edu>, I wrote:
> I've just done a couple of simple benchmarks that seem to
>indicate that the Linux extended file system has bandwidth problems.
>I believe that these problems are due to the use of a free list rather
>than a bitmap to keep track of available sectors.
[...]
> [...] I suspect that these problems can be
>ameliorated without radically redesigning the extended file system.
>For example, the length of the seeks might be reduced by having the
>file system examine a few of the available blocks on the free list and
>use the nearest of those blocks rather than always using the first
>block on the free list. Maybe I'll implement that change.

        Yesterday, I implemented that change and the improvement
in bandwidth seems to be small if it exists at all. Oh well.

-- 
Adam J. Richter                         409 Evelyn Avenue, Apt. 312
richter@cerf.net                        Albany, CA 94706
                                        (510)528-3209
Another member of the League for Programming Freedom (league@prep.ai.mit.edu).