Ali Saidi wrote:
> On Sep 6, 2008, at 4:26 PM, Gabe Black wrote:
>
>   
>> There are two major problems with using the DmaPort. First, I'd want  
>> to
>> send the interrupt -now- not when the DMA queuing latency, etc gets  
>> used
>> up. Second, DmaPort will fragment a packet which, while maybe  
>> necessary
>> in some cases, will break the atomicity requirements for the interrupt
>> messages and might even make the parts of it get there out of order.
>> While it may not -normally- fragment the message, if it does things  
>> will
>> be broken. I would rather not use something where such a large portion
>> of its functionality is either not needed or counterproductive.
>>     
> The only time the DMA port will break up the packet is if it's larger  
> than a cache block. I can't imagine an interrupt message being that  
> large. With MSI, interrupts don't magically get propagated. They  
> device still has to arbitrate for the bus.
> Ali
>   

I can't either, but I don't just want to hope that doesn't happen. Also, 
there will still be arbitration on the bus, but the APIC doesn't have to 
queue up a DMA transfer to send an IPI since it's not even transferring 
anything.
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