The context of the polling question was related to possibly
improving the throughput of the Soekris 4801 by enabling
polling to offset the throughput penalty of it's IRQ design.
Really a driver bug that only manifests on shared NIC IRQs.

I don't have a 4801 to test if polling makes any difference.

>> Turning on polling increased the machine's load to a noticeable level.

CPU load is not the same thing as bits/sec throughput.

A CPU load increase that gets you more bits/sec throughput
is a good thing (provided you still have enough CPU  for
heavy loads).

If you are starting with only a P166 then the added CPU load
would not likely help the throughput. That wasn't the question
though. We are talking about a 4801 (faster CPU).


  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Craig FALCONER"
  To: "'Steve Thomas'" , m0n0wall at lists dot m0n0 dot ch
  Subject: RE: [m0n0wall] Hardware suggestion
  Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2007 13:03:08 +1300


  Beg to differ - I have a nokia IP330 with a P166 CPU.

  Turning on polling increased the machine's load to a noticeable
  level.

  So its really "YMMV" but slower CPUs may not benefit from that.


  -----Original Message-----
  From: Steve Thomas [mailto:sthomas at consultant dot com]
  Sent: Friday, 9 February 2007 9:58 a.m.
  To: Lonnie Abelbeck; m0n0wall List
  Subject: Re: [m0n0wall] Hardware suggestion


  Good thought, I don't really know. AFAIK, turning on polling
  generally
  improves performanceover having it turned off.


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