The new 2.6.17 Linux kernel features several new system calls and ext3 features aimed at improving performance. It also features better WiFi support, and automatic detection of SMP-capable hardware, writes Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols in a summary of new features published by Linux-Watch.com.

According to Vaughan-Nichols, 2.6.17 includes new splice(), tee(), and vmsplice() kernel system calls that improve performance by reducing the number of times chunks of data have to be copied around in memory.

The ext3 filesystem has also received a performance boost, through support for mapping multiple block file input/output to disk, a change that could lead to 50 percent speed-ups with sequential I/O workloads.

Vaughan-Nichols's summary of changes can be found here. Embedded developers may also wish to have a look at the complete changelog, where lots of architecture-specific changes are listed (new support for XScale v3, for example).

 
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