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> Does you startup talk to a server on the Internet and need a handshake etc. that takes a while to complete? Cool. But not IO bound. Do the kids these days re

> Does you startup talk to a server on the Internet and need a handshake etc. that takes a while to complete? Cool. But not IO bound. Do the kids these days really not consider network traffic to be IO? Is this some artifact of cloud computer where everything is the computer and IO ~= storage?

MagicWishMonkey 5y ago
Literally anything not done directly on the CPU - anything reliant on an external system - should be considered IO. If it requires talking with an external device/network/etc. it's IO. The person who wrote that should go back and take an intro to computer architecture course.
mbfg 5y ago
it could be server cpu bound tho, is his point.
- throwawaylinux 5y ago
  Didn't seem to be because he said it might require a "handshake" that you're waiting on, which would traditionally mean a network roundtrip and minimal other work. (As opposed to server computations, which is not the example he gave)
alpaca128 5y ago
Network is definitely IO, though I have the impression they are talking more about disk IO. The linked survey shows 49% of devs are convinced their game startup is IO-bound, and I doubt they are all working on a pure online game that absolutely requires blocking server communication/login before showing the main menu. As much as I hated EA's Battlelog at least it got that thing right: login meant loading a website in a fraction of a second and the only time-consuming loading was when actually starting the game. I'm glad the PS5 focuses on that detail because honestly it gets really tiring to wait upwards of 5-10 seconds just to get to the main menu. It's a mostly static screen with a few buttons, in the age of SSDs that shouldn't need a loading screen.
Proven 5y ago
Network traffic is I/O, but when we talk about it we refer to network traffic or throughput, not "I/O". Since anything is I/O, why pick on network I/O? Let's rant about all components instead of agreeing with the poster (which is that gamers with SSDs are almost never I/O bound).

MagicWishMonkey 5y ago

Literally anything not done directly on the CPU - anything reliant on an external system - should be considered IO. If it requires talking with an external device/network/etc. it's IO. The person who wrote that should go back and take an intro to computer architecture course.

mbfg 5y ago

it could be server cpu bound tho, is his point.

throwawaylinux 5y ago
Didn't seem to be because he said it might require a "handshake" that you're waiting on, which would traditionally mean a network roundtrip and minimal other work. (As opposed to server computations, which is not the example he gave)

alpaca128 5y ago

Network is definitely IO, though I have the impression they are talking more about disk IO. The linked survey shows 49% of devs are convinced their game startup is IO-bound, and I doubt they are all working on a pure online game that absolutely requires blocking server communication/login before showing the main menu. As much as I hated EA's Battlelog at least it got that thing right: login meant loading a website in a fraction of a second and the only time-consuming loading was when actually starting the game. I'm glad the PS5 focuses on that detail because honestly it gets really tiring to wait upwards of 5-10 seconds just to get to the main menu. It's a mostly static screen with a few buttons, in the age of SSDs that shouldn't need a loading screen.

Proven 5y ago

Network traffic is I/O, but when we talk about it we refer to network traffic or throughput, not "I/O". Since anything is I/O, why pick on network I/O? Let's rant about all components instead of agreeing with the poster (which is that gamers with SSDs are almost never I/O bound).