Linux Kernel in a Nutshell

Name

PREEMPT — Preemptible kernel (low-latency desktop)

This option reduces the latency of the kernel by making all kernel code (except code executing in a critical section) preemptible. This allows reaction to interactive events by permitting a low priority process to be preempted involuntarily even if it is in kernel mode executing a system call and would otherwise not be about to reach a natural preemption point. This allows applications to appear to run more smoothly even when the system is under load, at the cost of slighly lower throughput and a slight runtime overhead to kernel code.

Select this if you are building a kernel for a desktop or embedded system with latency requirements in the milliseconds range.