Interesting multitasking bug.

aidas@ixsrs4.ix.netcom.com
Mon, 27 Jan 1997 20:09:06 -0600 (CST)

I use Timidity, which is a program that takes a MIDI file, mixes samples
in software, and then sends an audio stream to the sound card. It eats
around 50% CPU on some files, and is very sensitive to losing its time
slice.

Anyway, something I've noticed in later kernels, particularly 2.1.22. If I
load up the curses version of ncftp and "ls -l" a large directory on an
FTP site, Timidity apparently loses its time slice and the music skips
during the text scroll.

Keep in mind that I run timidity with a -20 priority. Some other
applications, such as Tiny Fugue, do this too.

Any idea what causes this? This is a P133, PCI video, 32MB RAM.