Linux preeampt

[danlo8600]

Hi, I have a little question about a new kernel.
I have installed on my kubuntu 10.04 the deb file called:
linux-image-2.6.32-22-preempt and linux-headers-2.6.32-22-preempt

What is this, what change from the genric kernl?

Thanks all for help
and sorry for my bad english. :D

[Phrea]

http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/linux-image-preempt

Apparently it's a "Linux kernel image for Low Latency Servers."

[red_Marvin]

Simply put, you do have a lot of threads (code) that run on the computer, and since you probably have more threads than cores, you need a scheduler that manages which thread gets to run when.

If the scheduler can switch away a running thread before the thread states it is done, in order to run another thread for a while, it is called preemptive multitasking.

Kernel preemption is that even kernel threads (pretty low level system stuff) can be preempted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_multitasking#Preemptive_multitasking.2Fti me-sharing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preemption_%28computing%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernel_preemption

[ssj6akshat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preemption_(computing)
:)

[Shining Arcanine]

http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/linux-image-preempt

Apparently it's a "Linux kernel image for Low Latency Servers."

Ubuntu traditionally has never had a preemption aware kernel. This is a nice change. The preemption aware kernel is ideal for a low latency desktop (i.e. one without lag). Server performance will likely suffer from it, because servers focus on throughput, not latencies.