Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!turnkey!orchard.la.locus.com!fafnir.la.locus.com!fafnir.la.locus.com!richard From: richard@locus.com (Richard M. Mathews) Newsgroups: comp.unix.internals Subject: Re: Nice Message-ID: Date: 29 Jan 91 05:15:02 GMT References: <1991Jan22.184055.3641@demott.com> Organization: Locus Computing Corporation, Los Angeles, California Lines: 17 rdavis@connie.UUCP (Ray Davis) writes: >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. Not necessarily. In many (most?) versions of Unix if an interrupt makes a process runnable at a higher priority than the running process, a context switch will be forced immediately. Since processes waiting for something like tty input will on most systems wake up at a priority higher than that of any user-mode process, perceived response time should not be greatly affected. Or so goes the theory;-) Richard M. Mathews D efend richard@locus.com E stonian-Latvian-Lithuanian lcc!richard@seas.ucla.edu I ndependence ...!{uunet|ucla-se|turnkey}!lcc!richard