Method and system for polling network controllers to a dedicated tasks including disabling of interrupts to prevent context switching
AssigneeFortinet, Inc.
InventorJianzu Ding
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Improving the performance of multitasking processors are provided. For example, a subset of M processors within a Symmetric Multi-Processing System (SMP) with N processors is dedicated for a specific task. The M (M>0) of the N processors are dedicate to a task, thus, leaving (N-M) processors for running normal operating system (OS). The processors dedicated to the task may have their interrupt mechanism disabled to avoid interrupt handler switching overhead. Therefore, these processors run in an independent context and can communicate with the normal OS and cooperation with the normal OS to achieve higher network performance.
Claims6
A method for improving the performance of a multi-processor system, the method comprising:
- during boot of an operating system of the multi-processor system, dedicating M general-purpose processors from N general-purpose processors to perform a desired task, wherein N is greater than M and the M processors are dedicated as task processors (TPs), the dedicating including disabling of interrupts to prevent context switching of the (TPs) and to prevent the (TPs) from performing tasks other than the desired task and bypassing task controller initialization during normal boot of an operating system;
- and
- performing the desired task by coupling the (TPs) and task controllers, via a reserved portion of a shared memory designated as a pseudo task controller, to facilitate communication between the (TPs) and task controllers.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by at least one processor, which when executed by the at least one processor causes a computing device to:
- during boot of an operating system of the multi-processor system, dedicating M general-purpose processors from N general-purpose processors to perform at least one specific task, wherein N is greater than M and the M processors are dedicated as task processors (TPs), the dedicating including disabling of interrupts to prevent context switching of the (TPs) and to prevent the (TPs) from performing tasks other than the at least one specific polling task and bypass task controller initialization during normal boot of an operating system;
- and
- perform at least one specific task by coupling the (TPs) and task controllers, via a reserved portion of a shared memory designated as a pseudo task controller, to facilitate communication between the (TPs) and task controllers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.