Windows loading tool?

Question

Hi group-I'm running some informal tests that will show communication latency of a virtual com port USB device receiving a short message from a Windows host computer.  What I want to vary is the loading of the host computer because I'm hypothesizing that the latency will be a function of loading.I realize that the term "loading" can take many forms and there's probably a variety of different loads one can place on the host computer.  I'd like to be able to find a ready made Windows loading test tool that will load my computer in a variety of different ways and be controllable.Does anyone know of such a tool?JJS

cs_posting · Accepted Answer

Vista?oh, nevermind, I see you said "controllable"

Marsh Ray · Answer

Funny I was talking with an NT driver/kernel guy about just that at the exact same time of your post. What I took away from the conversation was that it's likely that the way the code was written would probably be the biggest factor, and that the latency could probably be down in the tens of microseconds if the kernel had buffers available.

Microsoft has this thing this thing they call "Application Verifier". I don't know if it provides the kind of "loading" you're looking for, but it has tools to simulate various low-resource conditions.

formatting link

If you need loading at the driver level, you could try printing large images to an old, dumb parallel printer while simultaneously doing large file transfers with an old, dumb network adapter. See if you can find some actual 8250 (pre-16550) serial ports cards to throw in the mix, too. That should generate a a few interrupts.

- Marsh

Windows loading tool?

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