Tests under this directory were conducted with Linux kernel(s)
that were built with the SMP (symmetric multiprocessor) option
turned on. (This often the default for the kernels released on
kernel.org.) In general the uniprocessor kernels show slightly better
roundtrip latencies than corresponding SMP kernel. This is due
to extra locking etc. that is needed in the kernel code paths
when SMP is enabled.

In addtion to the uniprocessor/SMP distinction the kernels are further
distinguished by whether or not the Ingo Molnar "RT" patches have
been applied. Kernels with "RT" patches applied have a "rt" in the
kernel name, such as 2.6.14-rt22 (where 22 is the RT patch number).

RT kernel patches can be obtained from:

http://people.redhat.com/~mingo/realtime-preempt/

G. Thaker
December 8, 2005