[comp.unix.wizards] Sun 4 \"KNEE\" Wars

weiser.pa@xerox.com (06/11/88)

aglew@urbsdc.urbana.gould.com says:
"I don't have Sun 4 source at hand right now, but if their scheduler
is similar to the standard BSD scheduler a process coming out of
a sleep may [*] have its priority boosted. ...[further explanation here...]"

But this explanation doesn't explain why Sun's show this behavior and Vaxes
don't, nor why Sun-3's, with 8 MMU contexts, show the knee at 8 fast sleepers,
and Sun-4 with 16 MMU contexts show it at 16!

-mark

mash@mips.COM (John Mashey) (06/11/88)

In article <16138@brl-adm.ARPA> weiser.pa@xerox.com writes:
>aglew@urbsdc.urbana.gould.com says:
>"I don't have Sun 4 source at hand right now, but if their scheduler
>is similar to the standard BSD scheduler a process coming out of
>a sleep may [*] have its priority boosted. ...[further explanation here...]"
>
>But this explanation doesn't explain why Sun's show this behavior and Vaxes
>don't, nor why Sun-3's, with 8 MMU contexts, show the knee at 8 fast sleepers,
>and Sun-4 with 16 MMU contexts show it at 16!

A VAX uses a TLB, whose user portion must be flushed upon each context
switch, i.e., in some sense, it has 1 context (although this is not
strictly the same kind of context, as it does not need to be mass
saved/restored).  Hence, there is no reason for a VAX to have a
MMU-related knee anywhere.
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friedl@vsi.UUCP (Stephen J. Friedl) (06/12/88)

In article <2356@winchester.mips.COM>, mash@mips.COM (John Mashey) writes:
< [performance knees on Sun & friends]
< 
< A VAX uses a TLB, whose user portion must be flushed upon each context
< switch, i.e., in some sense, it has 1 context (although this is not
< strictly the same kind of context, as it does not need to be mass
< saved/restored).  Hence, there is no reason for a VAX to have a
< MMU-related knee anywhere.

Alternatively, it has a (smaller) knee at 1, 2, 3, .... :-)

-- 
Steve Friedl    V-Systems, Inc. (714) 545-6442      3B2-kind-of-guy
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