Re: [patch 0/7] sched: change nohz idle load balancing logic to push model

[Dominik Brodowski <linux@dominikbrodowski.net>]

Hey,

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 11:27:26AM -0700, Suresh Siddha wrote:
> This is an updated version of patchset which is posted earlier at
> http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/12/10/470
> 
> Description:
> Existing nohz idle load balance logic uses the pull model, with one
> idle load balancer CPU nominated on any partially idle system and that
> balancer CPU not going into nohz mode. With the periodic tick, the
> balancer does the idle balancing on behalf of all the CPUs in nohz mode.
> 
> This is not very optimal and has few issues:
> * the balancer will continue to have periodic ticks and wakeup
>   frequently (HZ rate), even though it may not have any rebalancing to do on
>   behalf of any of the idle CPUs.
> * On x86 and CPUs that have APIC timer stoppage on idle CPUs, this periodic
>   wakeup can result in an additional interrupt on a CPU doing the timer
>   broadcast.
> 
> The alternative is to have a push model, where all idle CPUs can enter nohz
> mode and any busy CPU kicks one of the idle CPUs to take care of idle
> balancing on behalf of a group of idle CPUs.
> 
> Following patches switches idle load balancer to this push approach.
> 
> Updates from the previous version:
> 
> * Busy CPU uses send_remote_softirq() for invoking SCHED_SOFTIRQ on the
>   idle load balancing cpu, which does the load balancing on behalf of
>   all the idle CPUs.
> 
> * Dropped the per NUMA node nohz load balancing as it doesn't detect
>   certain imbalance scenarios. This will be addressed later.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Suresh Siddha <suresh.b.siddha@intel.com>
> Signed-off-by: Venkatesh Pallipadi <venki@google.com>

This patchset works good on my notebook; the number of wakeups decreases
from ~2.5 to ~1.6 when booting with init=/bin/bash, disabling cursor
blinking and enabling USB autosuspend.

Thanks and best,
	Dominik