The event builder of CMS, one of the LHC
experiment expected to start in 2007, is
heavily demanding in term of computing power and network performances.Widely
available technologies like Ethernet and Linux are candidates for being used in the event builder. Their common use suffer however from a lack of performances. This
seminar will explain how a careful study of the, open
sourceand well documented, Linux memory management and Ethernet device drivers allows to overcome bottlenecks and reach
close-to-the-best network performances.
Performances of the new drivers in a simple testbed and in a full simulation of the CMS event builder will be presented
and discussed. To help understanding
the involved technologies, the seminar will also includes a simple tutorial about the architecture of modern operating
systems and network protocols.