Do we need a serial I/O benchmark (BAUDSTONE)?

[Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX]

In article <2063 at ubc-cs.UUCP> pajari at grads.cs.ubc.ca (George Pajari) writes:
:In <661 at omen.UUCP>, caf at omen.UUCP (Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX) writes:
:
:> A loopback configuration is next to useless for predicting the
:> ability of a system to receive data at speed from external
:> sources (other computers).
:
:I don't agree.

An ex-boss of mine didn't agree either, and bought a system based on
loopback tests, only to discover the real world performance was as I had
feared.  I loopback test does not necessarily detect throughput
bottlenecks caused by interrupt latency from critical regions.