Ensō: A Streaming Interface for NIC-Application Communication
summary
Replaces packetized NIC-CPU buffers with a contiguous ring streaming pipe that presents an unbounded byte stream, removing per-packet descriptors and enabling sequential memory access. Prototype uses a kernel module, NIC firmware, and a user library and claims fewer cache misses, lower PCIe metadata traffic, and up to 43% latency reduction. An Ensō NIC saturates a 100 Gbps link at 148.8 Mpps on one core and yields 1.5–6x throughput improvement for high‑performance apps.
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chapters (6)
- 0:00Ensō introduction and motivation
- 1:03Problems with packetized interfaces
- 4:38Ensō streaming abstraction
- 6:44Ensō implementation and design
- 11:20Evaluating Ensō with real apps
- 14:29Conclusion and future of Ensō
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