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Re: [Xen-devel] [rfc][patch] use of IRQ_LEVEL to remove strcmp()s

To: Jimi Xenidis <jimix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] [rfc][patch] use of IRQ_LEVEL to remove strcmp()s
From: Keir Fraser <Keir.Fraser@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 22:11:51 +0100
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On 19 Apr 2006, at 21:58, Jimi Xenidis wrote:

Ok this is blind, but it builds, so please take it more as a suggestion, There are a sequence of strcmp()s in irq.c to detect if an IO-APIC is level or edge triggered. Perhaps (borrowing form Linux) with the use of IRQ_LEVEL, we can detect this more efficiently?

Given the set of hw_interrupt_types we support right now this generalised logic appears to work, but in fact we really are testing for a specific PIC configuration here. For example, if we added a new hw_interrupt_type that was also level-triggered but which could be masked quickly and cleanly then it would have ACKTYPE_UNMASK not ACKTYPE_EOI. So the generalisation you are suggesting (to check for IRQ_LEVEL) doesn't really work.

The strcmps aren't really a problem -- they're not on a critical path, and we explicitly bug if we do not match on any of them so we should be resilient to addition of new PIC types or renamings of existing PIC types. I think the current code has the additional benefit of 'obviousness'.

Side Note: I believe that "ioapic_ack_new" is the same as IRQ_PER_CPU.

Xen/x86 does not use IRQ_PER_CPU at all. ioapic_ack_new simply determines whether we handle level-triggered IO-APIC interrupts by mask-eoi-process-unmask or by process-eoi. The new method is the latter because it turns out that many IO-APICs do not mask cleanly (they create spurious aliased interrupts).

 -- Keir


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