Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!convex!connie!rdavis From: rdavis@connie.UUCP (Ray Davis) Newsgroups: comp.unix.internals Subject: Re: Nice Message-ID: Date: 28 Jan 91 18:33:38 GMT References: <1991Jan22.184055.3641@demott.com> Organization: Convex Computer GmbH, Frankfurt, West Germany Lines: 19 In <1991Jan22.184055.3641@demott.com> kdq@demott.com (Kevin D. Quitt) writes: > I am running a cpu-bound, small program (15 pages of memory), on our >SYSV system. The startup is automated at boot time, and the program is >niced. Is it reasonable to expect that I should see little or no system >response-time degradation, or is the UNIX scheduler really that hosed? It completely depends on your machine, how it is set up and the load. For instance, is your machine a PC/AT with one less than a mip cpu and 1 meg of memory, or a Convex C240 with four ~50 mip cpus and 1 Gigabyte or memory? Also, what is this processed niced to? If it is niced negative then it will have a higher priority. If it is cpu bound, then it will always use it's whole time-slice, which most processes under unix don't do. This might at times degrade response-time, because if the proc gets the cpu, then it won't give it up as soon as other procs might. --Ray