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Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:18:15 -0800
From: Steve Calfee <stevecalfee@...il.com>
To: Alan Stern <stern@...land.harvard.edu>
CC: USB list <linux-usb@...r.kernel.org>,
Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
Kernel development list <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Busy-waiting with interrupts disabled
On 12/12/11 14:12, Alan Stern wrote:
> How long is it okay to busy-wait with interrupts disabled? Are there
> any clear-cut guidelines?
>
> My feeling is that for ordinary desktop use, 1-2 ms should be about the
> limit, but other people may feel differently. (There's one spot in
> ehci-hcd where the delay can last up to 250 ms, which does seem rather
> excessive. Fortunately it never takes that long unless the hardware is
> broken.)
>
This is a very subjective issue, as to how much is too much. Keep in
mind that when we had 1 MIP computers a delay of 1 to 2 ms would "waste"
from 1000 to 2000 potential instructions. With 3 gighz processors, the
potential waste jumps to 3,000,000 to 6,000,000 instructions. I know
that clock speed does not equal mips and that most processors spend most
of their time waiting for memory, but still, the waste increases with
processor speed.
Regards, Steve
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