freebsd with flexible iflib nic queues
Go to file
Adrian Chadd 470a7f4191 Migrate the TX path to a taskqueue for now, until a better way of
implementing parallel TX and TX/RX completion can be done without
simply abusing long-held locks.

Right now, multiple concurrent ath_start() entries can result in
frames being dequeued out of order.  Well, they're dequeued in order
fine, but if there's any preemption or race between CPUs between:

* removing the frame from the ifnet, and
* calling and runningath_tx_start(), until the frame is placed on a
  software or hardware TXQ

Then although dequeueing the frame is in-order, queueing it to the hardware
may be out of order.

This is solved in a lot of other drivers by just holding a TX lock over
a rather long period of time.  This lets them continue to direct dispatch
without races between dequeue and hardware queue.

Note to observers: if_transmit() doesn't necessarily solve this.
It removes the ifnet from the main path, but the same issue exists if
there's some intermediary queue (eg a bufring, which as an aside also
may pull in ifnet when you're using ALTQ.)

So, until I can sit down and code up a much better way of doing parallel
TX, I'm going to leave the TX path using a deferred taskqueue task.
What I will likely head towards is doing a direct dispatch to hardware
or software via if_transmit(), but it'll require some driver changes to
allow queues to be made without using the really large ath_buf / ath_desc
entries.

TODO:

* Look at how feasible it'll be to just do direct dispatch to
  ath_tx_start() from if_transmit(), avoiding doing _any_ intermediary
  serialisation into a global queue.  This may break ALTQ for example,
  so I have to be delicate.

* It's quite likely that I should break up ath_tx_start() so it
  deposits frames onto the software queues first, and then only fill
  in the 802.11 fields when it's being queued to the hardware.
  That will make the if_transmit() -> software queue path very
  quick and lightweight.

* This has some very bad behaviour when using ACPI and Cx states.
  I'll do some subsequent analysis using KTR and schedgraph and file
  a follow-up PR or two.

PR:		kern/168649
2012-06-04 22:01:12 +00:00
bin Work better with how make/bmake works: 2012-05-24 19:48:15 +00:00
cddl Import illumos changeset 13570:3411fd5f1589 2012-05-27 16:00:00 +00:00
contrib Fix dangling else in libc++'s __bit_reference header. This has also 2012-06-01 06:55:01 +00:00
crypto Update the previous openssl fix. [12:01] 2012-05-30 12:01:28 +00:00
etc Don't attempt to delete .sujournal in /tmp 2012-05-30 03:51:46 +00:00
games Partial revert of previous commit as some of the changes were not 2012-05-10 12:46:12 +00:00
gnu Correctly export operator new / delete for things linking against libsupc++ but 2012-05-28 12:11:00 +00:00
include Fix a compilation error with some compilers: __attribute__ 2012-05-22 09:59:49 +00:00
kerberos5 Centralize the specification of the krb5 build tools. 2012-06-01 21:26:28 +00:00
lib 1) IEEE Std 1003.1-2008, "errno" section, is explicit that 2012-06-04 21:34:49 +00:00
libexec mdoc: Only use macros inside a reference block. 2012-05-23 20:29:16 +00:00
release Omit clang when building picobsd, it takes way too long. 2012-05-03 20:50:55 +00:00
rescue Disable jail support in ifconfig when either building a rescue 2012-02-14 07:14:42 +00:00
sbin Add -p argument for camcontrol debug to allow enabling CAM_DEBUG_PROBE 2012-06-04 10:42:09 +00:00
secure Update the previous openssl fix. [12:01] 2012-05-30 12:01:28 +00:00
share Add myself as a new committer. 2012-06-04 15:21:13 +00:00
sys Migrate the TX path to a taskqueue for now, until a better way of 2012-06-04 22:01:12 +00:00
tools Add regression test for '-V' command line option (requires r236346). 2012-05-31 01:07:52 +00:00
usr.bin Allow the -p argument to kdump to accept either a PID or a thread ID. 2012-06-04 19:09:14 +00:00
usr.sbin Replace the use of wall clock time with monotonically increasing 2012-06-04 18:02:09 +00:00
COPYRIGHT Happy 2012 to FreeBSD users in Samoa. 2011-12-31 04:38:04 +00:00
LOCKS
MAINTAINERS Add isci(4) driver for amd64 and i386 targets. 2012-01-31 19:38:18 +00:00
Makefile Assume a big-endian default on MIPS and drop the "eb" suffix from MACHINE_ARCH. 2012-03-29 02:54:35 +00:00
Makefile.inc1 During buildworld and buildkernel, define EARLY_BUILD in the earlier 2012-06-03 20:35:41 +00:00
ObsoleteFiles.inc - FreeBSD ships a KDE PAM module in base, but it's missing support for passwordless login (kde-np), 2012-05-30 03:10:22 +00:00
README Add the cddl/ directory. 2010-11-14 11:32:56 +00:00
UPDATING Update directions on how to disable malloc debugging. 2012-04-17 20:35:54 +00:00

This is the top level of the FreeBSD source directory.  This file
was last revised on:
$FreeBSD$

For copyright information, please see the file COPYRIGHT in this
directory (additional copyright information also exists for some
sources in this tree - please see the specific source directories for
more information).

The Makefile in this directory supports a number of targets for
building components (or all) of the FreeBSD source tree, the most
commonly used one being ``world'', which rebuilds and installs
everything in the FreeBSD system from the source tree except the
kernel, the kernel-modules and the contents of /etc.  The ``world''
target should only be used in cases where the source tree has not
changed from the currently running version.  See:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/makeworld.html
for more information, including setting make(1) variables.

The ``buildkernel'' and ``installkernel'' targets build and install
the kernel and the modules (see below).  Please see the top of
the Makefile in this directory for more information on the
standard build targets and compile-time flags.

Building a kernel is a somewhat more involved process, documentation
for which can be found at:
   http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig.html
And in the config(8) man page.
Note: If you want to build and install the kernel with the
``buildkernel'' and ``installkernel'' targets, you might need to build
world before.  More information is available in the handbook.

The sample kernel configuration files reside in the sys/<arch>/conf
sub-directory (assuming that you've installed the kernel sources), the
file named GENERIC being the one used to build your initial installation
kernel.  The file NOTES contains entries and documentation for all possible
devices, not just those commonly used.  It is the successor of the ancient
LINT file, but in contrast to LINT, it is not buildable as a kernel but a
pure reference and documentation file.


Source Roadmap:
---------------
bin		System/user commands.

cddl		Various commands and libraries under the Common Development
		and Distribution License.

contrib		Packages contributed by 3rd parties.

crypto		Cryptography stuff (see crypto/README).

etc		Template files for /etc.

games		Amusements.

gnu		Various commands and libraries under the GNU Public License.
		Please see gnu/COPYING* for more information.

include		System include files.

kerberos5	Kerberos5 (Heimdal) package.

lib		System libraries.

libexec		System daemons.

release		Release building Makefile & associated tools.

rescue		Build system for statically linked /rescue utilities.

sbin		System commands.

secure		Cryptographic libraries and commands.

share		Shared resources.

sys		Kernel sources.

tools		Utilities for regression testing and miscellaneous tasks.

usr.bin		User commands.

usr.sbin	System administration commands.


For information on synchronizing your source tree with one or more of
the FreeBSD Project's development branches, please see:

  http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/synching.html