Re: ethernet card
At 03:52 PM 10/24/96 PDT, Bruce Perens wrote:
>An NE2000 is a programmed-IO card, isn't it? While you are transferring
>data to and from one, your system isn't processing.
From: Christian Watts <cmwatts@telepath.com>
> I have an Artisoft Noderunner S/I (NE2000 clone, the one that comes with
> lantastic), and I've been able to continue to run apps while
> transferring data, and even play video games across the network without
> noticeable timing problems. This may be true of some cheap clones, but
> I doubt if it's a special feature of my card that I can do this.
I looked at the driver code and verified that it is doing programmed I/O.
So, while it is perhaps not significant for some systems, the thing is
using the CPU to wait for ISA bus transfers, and the CPU is stuck at interrupt
priority and not running your program while this is happening. No doubt it goes
by too fast to notice. You'd probably have to run a benchmark to tell the
difference.
Bruce
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