[ixp1200] Microengine measurments?

[Øyvind Hvamstad]

Hi, it's me again.

Does anyone have thoughts on what is the best practice to do precice
measurements on a microengine level?

I have done some measurments using the cycle_cnt register and it looks
valid compared to results from Spalink et al's paper[1]. I have some
questions, though (As usual, potentially stupid).

Does the Intel Ingress ACE have any impact on performance, or is it
merly controlling the interfaces? The reason I ask is because the design
document vaguely implies that it is only used for control purposes.

I read the cycle_cnt on the top of my dispatch loop and I store the
difference after having sent it to the Intel Egress ACE. From the source
of DL_MESink, the packet is enqueued for the next ACE. This probably
means that I'm unable to measure how long it takes the Egress to process
the pakcet. Is this correct? Are there any existing measurements on the
performance of the egress?

Info: ENP-2505, embedded linux, Intel SDK 2.01

[1] Spaling et al. Building a Robust Software-Based Router Using Network
Processors
-- 
Øyvind Hvamstad <oyvindh at ifi.uio.no>