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rbf_ | 11 years ago

They mention that this is using a polling architecture so each core is using 100% cpu even when idle. I've worked on high performance systems architected around polling before, but assumed that would be prohibitively costly these days now that cpu's have really advanced power management capabilities. Is polling architecture still viable for large scale cloud computing given costs of energy consumption? Years ago cpu's used a flat amount of power regardless of cpu utilization but now those extra cycles cost watts and of course money.

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shawn-furyan|11 years ago

Perhaps such a server could be integrated in a way such that it spins up during high load scenarios and back down when the load is no longer sufficient to keep it saturated? If that were possible, then overall efficiency could still be higher than using only servers with better idle power usage characteristics since it could potentially save you from having to deploy n times as many normal servers.

rbf_|11 years ago

That little embedded user space tcp/ip stack is really neat.

seastarer|11 years ago

We plan to reduce power usage on low load eventually.

noir_lord|11 years ago

Sounds awesome but I wouldn't look at something like this (which is awesome btw) unless I was expecting it be under massive sustained load.

For everything else I'd just use Python or PHP as they are mostly fast enough.

I am planning to write a framework in Rust when I have the time though as I find it an interesting language and as a web dev it's my area, I'll definitely be looking at how you approached stuff ;).

rbf_|11 years ago

Cool, it would be an interesting design to see something with polling and perhaps different gears for lower load levels. BTW, the system with polling architecture that I mentioned I worked on is still in production and selling well(I hear).