Re: proposed optimization for network drivers

[Jeff Garzik]

Don Cohen wrote:
> In part I agree.  I would have preferred to make my change in one
> place instead of one driver at a time.  On the other hand, it seems to
> me that some of these details are already spread around all the
> drivers.  For instance, why does every driver have to call
> eth_type_trans?  Could that be delayed for netif_rx ?
> 
> I do think it's reasonable for a driver to test whether the upper
> layers are ready to process another packet.  I suggest that this 
> test be encapsulated into a new function that can be changed at the
> cost of only recompiling all the drivers.

Why not NAPI?  That is the existing mechanism provided to let the upper 
layer feedback to the low-level driver system congestion information.

	Jeff