Date:	Sat, 17 May 2014 09:52:12 +0300
From:	Stratos Karafotis <stratosk@...aphore.gr>
To:	Dirk Brandewie <dirk.brandewie@...il.com>,
	"Rafael J. Wysocki" <rjw@...ysocki.net>,
	Viresh Kumar <viresh.kumar@...aro.org>,
	Dirk Brandewie <dirk.j.brandewie@...el.com>
CC:	"linux-pm@...r.kernel.org" <linux-pm@...r.kernel.org>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Doug Smythies <dsmythies@...us.net>,
	Yuyang Du <yuyang.du@...el.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] cpufreq: intel_pstate: Change the calculation of
 next pstate

Hi all!

On 12/05/2014 11:30 μμ, Stratos Karafotis wrote:
> On 09/05/2014 05:56 μμ, Stratos Karafotis wrote:
>> Hi Dirk,
>>
>> On 08/05/2014 11:52 μμ, Dirk Brandewie wrote:
>>> On 05/05/2014 04:57 PM, Stratos Karafotis wrote:
>>>> Currently the driver calculates the next pstate proportional to
>>>> core_busy factor, scaled by the ratio max_pstate / current_pstate.
>>>>
>>>> Using the scaled load (core_busy) to calculate the next pstate
>>>> is not always correct, because there are cases that the load is
>>>> independent from current pstate. For example, a tight 'for' loop
>>>> through many sampling intervals will cause a load of 100% in
>>>> every pstate.
>>>>
>>>> So, change the above method and calculate the next pstate with
>>>> the assumption that the next pstate should not depend on the
>>>> current pstate. The next pstate should only be proportional
>>>> to measured load. Use the linear function to calculate the load:
>>>>
>>>> Next P-state = A + B * load
>>>>
>>>> where A = min_state and B = (max_pstate - min_pstate) / 100
>>>> If turbo is enabled the B = (turbo_pstate - min_pstate) / 100
>>>> The load is calculated using the kernel time functions.
>>>>
>>
>> Thank you very much for your comments and for your time to test my patch!
>>
>>
>>>
>>> This will hurt your power numbers under "normal" conditions where you
>>> are not running a performance workload. Consider the following:
>>>
>>>    1. The system is idle, all core at min P state and utilization is low say < 10%
>>>    2. You run something that drives the load as seen by the kernel to 100%
>>>       which scaled by the current P state.
>>>
>>> This would cause the P state to go from min -> max in one step.  Which is
>>> what you want if you are only looking at a single core.  But this will also
>>> drag every core in the package to the max P state as well.  This would be fine
>>
>> I think, this will also happen using the original driver (before your
>> new patch 4/5), after some sampling intervals.
>>
>>
>>> if the power vs frequency cure was linear all the cores would finish
>>> their work faster and go idle sooner (race to halt) and maybe spend
>>> more time in a deeper C state which dwarfs the amount of power we can
>>> save by controlling P states. Unfortunately this is *not* the case, 
>>> power vs frequency curve is non-linear and get very steep in the turbo
>>> range.  If it were linear there would be no reason to have P state
>>> control you could select the highest P state and walk away.
>>>
>>> Being conservative on the way up and aggressive on way down give you
>>> the best power efficiency on non-benchmark loads.  Most benchmarks
>>> are pretty useless for measuring power efficiency (unless they were
>>> designed for it) since they are measuring how fast something can be
>>> done which is measuring the efficiency at max performance.
>>>
>>> The performance issues you pointed out were caused by commit 
>>> fcb6a15c intel_pstate: Take core C0 time into account for core busy calculation
>>> and the ensuing problem is caused. These have been fixed in the patch set
>>>
>>>    https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/5/8/574
>>>
>>> The performance comparison between before/after this patch set, your patch
>>> and ondemand/acpi_cpufreq is available at:
>>>     http://openbenchmarking.org/result/1405085-PL-C0200965993
>>> ffmpeg was added to the set of benchmarks because there was a regression
>>> reported against this benchmark as well.
>>>     https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=75121
>>
>> Of course, I agree generally with your comments above. But I believe that
>> the we should scale the core as soon as we measure high load. 
>>
>> I tested your new patches and I confirm your benchmarks. But I think
>> they are against the above theory (at least on low loads).
>> With the new patches I get increased frequencies even on an idle system.
>> Please compare the results below.
>>
>> With your latest patches during a mp3 decoding (a non-benchmark load)
>> the energy consumption increased to 5187.52 J from 5036.57 J (almost 3%).
>>
>>
>> Thanks again,
>> Stratos
>>
> 
> I would like to explain a little bit further the logic behind this patch.
> 
> The patch is based on the following assumptions (some of them are pretty
> obvious but please let me mention them):
> 
> 1) We define the load of the CPU as the percentage of sampling period that
> CPU was busy (not idle), as measured by the kernel.
> 
> 2) It's not possible to predict (with accuracy) the load of a CPU in future
> sampling periods.
> 
> 3) The load in the next sampling interval is most probable to be very
> close to the current sampling interval. (Actually the load in the
> next sampling interval could have any value, 0 - 100).
> 
> 4) In order to select the next performance state of the CPU we need to
> calculate the load frequently (as fast as hardware permits) and change
> the next state accordingly.
> 
> 5) At a given constant 0% (zero) load in a specific period, the CPU
> performance state should be equal to minimum available state.
> 
> 6) At a given constant 100% load in a specific period, the CPU performance
> state should be equal to maximum available state.
> 
> 7) Ideally, the CPU should execute instructions at maximum performance state.
> 
> 
> According to the above if the measured load in a sampling interval is, for
> example 50%, ideally the CPU should spent half of the next sampling period
> to maximum pstate and half of the period to minimum pstate. Of course
> it's impossible to increase the sampling frequency so much.
> 
> Thus, we consider that the best approximation would be:
> 
> Next performance state = min_perf + (max_perf - min_perf) * load / 100
> 

Any additional comments?
Should I consider it a rejected approach?


Thanks,
Stratos


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