polling's future [was: Re: Dynamic Ticks/HZ]

[Garrett Cooper]

On Nov 6, 2012, at 4:31 AM, Chuck Burns <break19 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tuesday, November 06, 2012 12:36:46 PM Andre Oppermann wrote:
>> On 06.11.2012 12:30, Luigi Rizzo wrote:
>>> On Tue, Nov 06, 2012 at 11:23:34AM +0100, Andre Oppermann
> wrote:
>>> ...
>>> 
>>>> Hi Luigi,
>>>> 
>>>> do you agree on polling having outlived its usefulness in the light
>>>> of interrupt moderating NIC's and SMP
> complications/disadvantages?
>>> 
>>> yes, we should let it rest in peace.
>> 
>> Thank you for this non-complicated answer. :-)
> 
> I worry about what happens for those people who would be running 
> FreeBSD on older equipment where polling might still make sense.
> 
> Do we throw them under the bus?

I think that adding a big fat warning at boot if the driver supports proper hybrid polling (think: witness) might dissuade some folks.
Thanks!
-Garrett