Axboe Achieves 8M IOPS Per-Core With Newest Linux Optimization Patches

It was just last week that Linux optimizations were leading to possible 6M IOPS per core and then at the start of this week new patches pushed Linux past 7M IOPS per-core with an ideal hardware configuration as well. In ending out the week, 8M IOPS has been reached!

Jens Axboe of Facebook who leads the Linux kernel's block subsystem and also well known for his development of IO_uring has been pushing the limits of Linux I/O performance. It was just last month he was excited over 3+ million IOPS per-core after upgrading to an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X desktop with Intel Optane Gen2 storage.

Since his system upgrade, he's been relentlessly pursuing new optimizations throughout the block subsystem and IO_uring and is now reaching near the hardware limits. With the latest patches this weekend he did manage to successfully breach 8M IOPS per-core.

Time to call it a weekend. pic.twitter.com/V8CDWCKaey

— Jens Axboe (@axboe) October 16, 2021

Great work and these Linux I/O improvements continue to be queued via the perf-wip branch. Much if not all of these improvements will end up being found in the Linux 5.16 cycle with its merge window kicking off next month.

Cheers to Jens Axboe and his incredible ongoing optimization work for enhancing Linux I/O performance.