Subject: Re: CG6 and serial port support questions
To: David Gilbert <dgilbert@jaywon.pci.on.ca>
From: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>
List: port-sun3
Date: 03/05/1996 18:46:18
On Tue, 5 Mar 1996 20:56:44 -0500 (EST)
David Gilbert <dgilbert@jaywon.pci.on.ca> wrote:
> Rick> When Sun switched from 68k to sparc, the decided that ring
> Rick> buffers were a good thing as compared to clists. Thus, a Sun
> Rick> 3/60 had better serial throughput than a sparc 1+.
>
> Rick> To this day, the serial driver in Solaris sucks.
>
> Does this mean that it's all a software issue? I know that
> the NetBSD uses ring buffers. Would it be possible to rewrite it in
> terms of a faster or more efficient structure?
Umm ... ring buffers aren't inefficient .. however, there is a change to
the tty code that would vastly improve them...the change is simple
(basically, killing the "tty hog" stuff, since they're not required by
ring buffers ... a dinosaur from clists) ...
Another thing that would be nice is a multi-character read hook in the
line discipline ... this one is a weensy bit harder...
> It seems from this discussion, that when I get my 3/260 (in a
> little while), it will make a better uucp host that my 4/260, as it
> currently stands.
Why? NetBSD/sun3 uses the same tty code as NetBSD/sparc...If I
understand the SunOS change, it was something that happened around or
after 4.1.1...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jason R. Thorpe thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center Home: 408.866.1912
NAS: M/S 258-6 Work: 415.604.0935
Moffett Field, CA 94035 Pager: 415.428.6939