[H-GEN] SETI at home

[Martin Pool]

(Note reply-to: being general at humbug.org.au vs Martin Pool <martinp at mincom.com>)

Mark Suter wrote:
> On 28 Jul 1999, Robert Brockway wrote:
> > This is interesting, as I was always under the impression that nice 20
> > processes ran only when they system was otherwise idle.  Can anyone
> > comment if this how it is for other unices (other than Linux that is) ?
> 
> Under Digital Unix 4.0D, the process at maximum niceness can be
> starved, that is, they get CPU time only when the system is otherwise
> idle.  This is a slight gotcha :-)

Mark aludes to a very important point, which is that (I think) most OSs
intended for desktops or servers don't do priority inversion, and so
giving _no_ cycles to a low-priority task would run the risk of starving
higher-priority tasks that are waiting for their resources.

-- 
 /\\\  Mincom | Martin Pool          | martinp at mincom.com
// \\\        | Software Engineer    | Phone: +61 7 3303-3333
\\ ///        | Mincom Ltd.          | 
 \///         | Teneriffe, Brisbane  | Speaking for myself only

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