News: 0001598377

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Linux 6.19 Networking Delivers 4x Improvement For Heavy Transfer Workloads, New Hardware

([Linux Networking] 3 Hours Ago Linux 6.19 Networking)


The big set of networking subsystem updates was recently merged for the ongoing Linux 6.19 merge window. There are some enticing core networking improvements like a big performance improvement for heavy transfer workloads, Bluetooth PAST enablement, and more. Plus a lot of wired and wireless networking driver activity and new hardware enablement.

Some of the most intriguing highlights of the Linux 6.19 networking updates include:

- Replacing a busy lock at the transfer queuing layer with a lock-less list to yield a 4x improvement in heavy transfer workloads! The merge request notes " sending twice the number of packets per second, for half the cpu cycles. " Sounds like it is a very enticing win to the core networking code.

- Making Multi-Path TCP (MPTCP) use receive backlog processing to lower the lock pressure and improve receive performance.'

- Support for setting the max record size in TLS with RFC 8449.

- CAN XL support added to the CAN Netlink interface.

- Initial support for Bluetooth Periodic Advertising Sync Transfer (PAST). The merge request called it "PASTa" bu the PAST is a feature of Bluetooth LE for two connected Bluetooth devices to share periodic advertising synchronization over an existing connection. This can provide better power efficiency and easier Bluetooth connection setup.

- The Realtek RTW89 WiFi driver now supports the RTL8852AU and RTL8852CU USB devices.

- The RTW89 driver also has initial support for the RTL8922DE ASIC.

- The Realtek R8169 driver added [1]support for the RTL8125K .

- Adding the MUCSE driver for N210 and N50 Gigabit NICs.

- NXP i.MX94 networking support in the ENETC driver.

- The Synopsys STMMAC driver [2]now supports the ESWIN EIC7700 SoC as well as the Rockchip RK3506 and Altera AgileX 5.

- Adding Motorcomm YT921x gigabit Ethernet switch support.

- [3]NVIDIA preparations for 1.6 Tb/s networking .

See [4]this pull for the lengthy list of networking updates merged for Linux 6.19.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.19-Realtek-RTL8125K

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.19-Eswin-EIC7700-Net

[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVIDIA-1.6Tb-Net-Linux-6.19

[4] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20251202234943.2312938-1-kuba@kernel.org/


Linux Ported to Homer Simpson's Brain

SPRINGFIELD -- Slashdot recently reported on Homer Simpson's brain "upgrade"
to an Intel CPU. Intel hails the CPU transplant as the "World's Greatest
Technological Achievement". Intel originally planned to install Microsoft
Windows CE (Cerebrum Enhanced) on Homer's new PentiumBrain II processor.
However, due to delays in releasing Windows CE, Intel decided to install
DebianBrain Linux, the new Linux port for brains.

Computer industry pundits applaud the last minute switch from Windows to
Linux. One said, "I was a bit concerned for Homer. With Windows CE, I could
easily imagine Homer slipping into an infinite loop: "General Protection
Fault. D'oh! D'oh! D'oh! D'oh..." Or, at the worst, the Blue Screen of
Death could have become much more than a joke."

Some pundits are more concerned about the quality of the Intel CPU. "Linux
is certainly an improvement over Windows. But since it's running on a
PentiumBrain chip, all bets are off. What if the chip miscalculates the core
temperature of the power plant where Homer works? I can just imagine the
story on the evening news: 'Springfield was obliterated into countless
subatomic particles yesterday because Homer J. Simpson, power plant
button-pusher, accidentally set the core temperature to 149.992322340948290
instead of 150...' If anything, an Alpha chip running Linux should have been
used for Homer's new brain."