Researchers at the University of Waterloo have made significant improvements to the Linux kernel's network stack, allowing datacenters to potentially reduce power consumption by up to 30% with just 30 lines of code. This update highlights a shift from traditional interrupt-driven networking toward a poll-based approach, which better suits modern workloads that require sustained throughput. Traditionally, Linux managed multi-user systems by interrupting the CPU for each incoming packet; however, newer applications can benefit from polling the network when they are ready for more work, thus improving efficiency.
In the old school system the operating system was a facilitator of multi-user activities; the OS constantly needs to look after everybody and establish fairness.
For modern throughput-oriented workloads, it can be more efficient for the application to poll the network when it's ready to take on more work.
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