In <39328678.537B780F@cyberport.com> Warren Young (tangent@cyberport.com) wrote:
>> Simple sample: in linux drivers all unneeded on locks in driver are nullified
>> and on SMP they are inlined. You CAN NOT do this with binary interface. Thus
>> if you need good support for 8-way (16-way 32-way) system you INEVITABLE
> Good point. I'll mull it over before I do the next edit.
In fact it's two-edged sword: since linux drivers can be tuned for specific
kernel/compiler configuration and/or specific hardware you can get more
effective drivers (and system as whole) but the same thing (only source-level
compatibility across different kernels) makes binary drivers almost useless:
you often can not use binary from one version in other (even something like
driver from 2.0.32 in 2.0.33 will not work) and even in the same kernel
version compiled with different compiler/with different compiler options.
So in linux you basically FORCED to use only drivers with sources. Is it good
thing or bad is other question completely.
P.S. And yes, some such tweaks can be done with binary drivers as well. In
theory - to any degree of complexity. On practice only VERY simple tweaks are
feasible with binary drivers.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed May 31 2000 - 21:00:21 EST