[enfs-devel] RPC libraries

[Hudson, T. B. <Tra...@ce...>]

Folks,

At lunch a few weeks ago Lee and I discussed non-blocking RPC libraries. I
was concerned with the cost and overhead of threads, as well as the
complexity for filesystem writers who were unaccustomed to threads.  We
agreed that without an actual coder who complained, the issue was
moot.
 
On a whim this morning I decided to check what other RPC libraries did and
found a paper from USENIX 98 in which the authors used deferred
continuations:
 
 	
http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/usenix98/full_papers/
anderson/anderson_html/node11.html

They have zero-copy RPC in their operating system, among other neat
features.  The continuations are generated in an interrupt service
routine, which is an interesting way to schedule a "bottom half"
handler to run.

Trammell