Pai, Vivek2017-08-022017-08-021997-01-11Pai, Vivek. "IO-Lite: A Copy-free UNIX I/O System." (1997) https://hdl.handle.net/1911/96462.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/96462This work was also published as a Rice University thesis/dissertation: http://hdl.handle.net/1911/17117Memory copy speed is known to be a significant barrier to high-speed communication. We perform an analysis of the requirements for a copy-free buffer system, develop an implementation-independent applications programming interface (API) based on those requirements, and then implement a system that conforms to the API. In addition, we design and implement a fully copy-free file system cache. Performance tests indicate that our system dramatically outperforms traditional systems on communications-oriented tasks by a factor of 2 to 10. Application programs that have been modified to utilize our copy-free system have also shown reductions in run time, ranging from 10% to nearly 50%.69 ppengYou are granted permission for the noncommercial reproduction, distribution, display, and performance of this technical report in any format, but this permission is only for a period of forty-five (45) days from the most recent time that you verified that this technical report is still available from the Computer Science Department of Rice University under terms that include this permission. All other rights are reserved by the author(s).Technical reportTR97-269