User Manual

Rev 4.60
Mellanox Technologies
52
• Send Buffers
The number of sent buffers (default 2048).
• Performance Options
Configures parameters that can improve adapter performance.
• Interrupt Moderation
Moderates or delays the interrupts’ generation. Hence, optimizes network throughput and CPU uti-
lization (default Enabled).
• When the interrupt moderation is enabled, the system accumulates interrupts and sends a single interrupt
rather than a series of interrupts. An interrupt is generated after receiving 5 packets or after 10ms from
the first packet received. It improves performance and reduces CPU load however, it increases latency.
• When the interrupt moderation is disabled, the system generates an interrupt each time a packet is
received or sent. In this mode, the CPU utilization data rates increase, as the system handles a larger
number of interrupts. However, the latency decreases as the packet is handled faster.
• Receive Side Scaling (RSS Mode)
Improves incoming packet processing performance. RSS enables the adapter port to utilize the
multiple CPUs in a multi-core system for receiving incoming packets and steering them to the des-
ignated destination. RSS can significantly improve the number of transactions, the number of con-
nections per second, and the network throughput.
This parameter can be set to one of the following values:
• Enabled (default): Set RSS Mode
• Disabled: The hardware is configured once to use the Toeplitz hash function, and the indirection table is
never changed.
• Receive Completion Method
Sets the completion methods of the received packets, and can affect network throughput and CPU utili-
zation.
• Polling Method
Increases the CPU utilization as the system polls the received rings for the incoming packets. However, it
may increase the network performance as the incoming packet is handled faster.
• Interrupt Method
Optimizes the CPU as it uses interrupts for handling incoming messages. However, in certain scenarios it
can decrease the network throughput.
• Adaptive (Default Settings)
A combination of the interrupt and polling methods dynamically, depending on traffic type and network
usage. Choosing a different setting may improve network and/or system performance in certain configu-
rations.
• Interrupt Moderation RX Packet Count
Number of packets that need to be received before an interrupt is generated on the receive side
(default 5).
• Interrupt Moderation RX Packet Time
IOAT is not used while in RSS mode.