XDP (eXpress Data Path) is the new programmable in-kernel fast-path, which is placed as a layer before the existing Linux kernel network stack (netstack). We claim XDP is not kernel-bypass, as it is a layer before and it can easily fall-through to netstack. Reality is...
System memory configuration is a transparent operation nowadays, something that we all came to expect to just work out of the box. Still, it does happen behind the scenes every single time we boot our computers. This requires the cooperation of hardware components on...
In I.T. we all use all kinds of metrics. Operations teams rely heavily on these, especially when things go south. These metrics are sometimes overrated. Let’s dive into a few real life stories...
As the name would suggest, a Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) is an interrupt-like feature that is unaffected by the disabling of classic interrupts. In Linux, NMIs are involved in some features such as performance event monitoring, hard-lockup detector, on demand state...
Traditionally processes are identified globally via process identifiers (PIDs). Due to how pid allocation works the kernel is free to recycle PIDs once a process has been reaped. As such, PIDs do not allow another process to maintain a private, stable reference on a...
