[ltp] cpu load on PCMCIA usage

Dean L. Hedin linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org
Wed, 13 Nov 2002 08:24:33 -0500


You might want to try irqtune.  It's intended use is to switch
irq priorities to enhance serial modem performance.  But it
might work with the ethernet.  Not sure if it will work with
recent kernels though...

On Sunday 10 November 2002 06:02 pm, Maik Musall wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I've been using Linux with kernels from 2.4.4 to 2.4.19 on my 600X for
> years now, and everything's working, but all those years there's one thing
> that still annoys me.
>
> I have five different pcmcia network devices in use.
> 1. Lucent Wireless LAN, 11 MBit
> 2. Linksys 10/100 MBit+Modem
> 3. D-Link 10 MBit
> 4. 3com 3c589, 10 MBit
> 5. Silicom 10 MBit
>
> All do work basically, but when transferring at about 1 MByte/s (10 MBit),
> the cpu load is always at almost 100% system time. As a consequence,
> I did not manage to transfer more than 1.4 MByte/s over the 100MBit
> Linksys card instead of 7-9 MByte/s. The cpu is the bottleneck.
>
> When I transfer a large file to my K6-233 with Intel EtherExpressPro-100,
> that machine idles around at 5% load, while my PIII-500 600X Thinkpad
> sticks at 100% cpu, limiting the transfer rate.
>
> Protocol does not matter, occurs with ftp as with rcp or nfs or even
> a simple netcat from /dev/zero on one to /dev/null on the other side.
> Also, direction of transfer does not matter.
>
> Is that normal? Are there parameters for the i82365 that I don't know
> of that may improve this? Or any other hint where to look?
>
> Here's part of my config.opts:
> ------- snip
> include port 0x100-0x4ff, port 0x800-0x8ff, port 0xc00-0xcff
> include memory 0xc0000-0xfffff
> include memory 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff, memory 0x60000000-0x60ffffff
> include port 0xa00-0xaff
> exclude irq 4
> exclude irq 3
> exclude irq 7
> ------- snap
>
> Thanks and regards