Cecilia Hu wrote: > >> Cecilia Hu wrote: >>> >>> The architecture of the Intel 10GbE PCI Express Adapter differs >>> significantly from the Intel 82597EX based PCIX Adapter, which is >>> supported by ixgb. An important new feature of this adapter is >>> I/OAT >>> (I/O Acceleration Technology) from Intel which will be helpful for >>> performance improvement. So we introduce a new driver to support >>> them. >> >> let's see. I/O AT is a collection of new capabilities that may >> involve the NIC, the chipset and/or >> the CPU. >> Could you say more about which of these capabilities that this case >> will be using/supporting? > > This driver can use the capabilities of NIC, chipset and CPU, but it will > support the I/OAT features only after framework is ready.
so I take it there is another framework in Solaris that exposes the I/O AT features, right? This case depends on that framework in order to deliver its support for key performance functionality. This case imports interfaces from that framework. Is that a fair understanding? >> Also looking at Intel's docs (and previous presentations), there is a >> hint to a need for an "optimized >> TCP/IP stack" in order to benefit from I/O AT. (see for instance >> http://download.intel.com/technology/comms/perfnet/download/98856.pdf). >> Is this case introducing changes for the OpenSolaris TCP/IP stack to >> be able to use I/OAT ? Any new >> interfaces needed to negotiate such capabs? > > This case only covers the implementation of this driver. It will not > introduce changes for the OpenSolaris TCP/IP stack either. Given the fact that the case included support for I/O AT features to help performance, and given the observation that other Operating systems needed to change their TCP/IP stack is addition to the driver in order to benefit from I/O AT, can this case be considered complete without the TCP/IP stack changes? can it deliver any performance benefit at all without those changes? Kais
