Re: [v3 PATCH 4/4] timers: logic to move non pinned timers

[Arun R Bharadwaj <arun@linux.vnet.ibm.com>]

* Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> [2009-03-17 11:22:24]:

> On Mon, 16 Mar 2009, Arun R Bharadwaj wrote:
> > @@ -627,6 +628,16 @@ __mod_timer(struct timer_list *timer, un
> >  
> >  	new_base = __get_cpu_var(tvec_bases);
> >  
> > +	current_cpu = smp_processor_id();
> > +	preferred_cpu = get_nohz_load_balancer();
> > +	if (get_sysctl_timer_migration() && idle_cpu(current_cpu) &&
> > +			!pinned && preferred_cpu != -1) {
> > +		new_base = per_cpu(tvec_bases, preferred_cpu);
> > +		timer_set_base(timer, new_base);
> > +		timer->expires = expires;
> > +		internal_add_timer(new_base, timer);
> > +		goto out_unlock;
> > +	}
> 
>   Err. This change breaks the timer->base logic. Why can't it just
>   select the base and use the existing code ?
>

Sure, I'll take care of this.

> > @@ -198,8 +200,16 @@ switch_hrtimer_base(struct hrtimer *time
> >  {
> >  	struct hrtimer_clock_base *new_base;
> >  	struct hrtimer_cpu_base *new_cpu_base;
> > +	int current_cpu, preferred_cpu;
> > +
> > +	current_cpu = smp_processor_id();
> > +	preferred_cpu = get_nohz_load_balancer();
> > +	if (get_sysctl_timer_migration() && !pinned && preferred_cpu != -1
> > +			&& idle_cpu(current_cpu))
> > +		new_cpu_base = &per_cpu(hrtimer_bases, preferred_cpu);
> > +	else
> > +		new_cpu_base = &__get_cpu_var(hrtimer_bases);
> >  
> > -	new_cpu_base = &__get_cpu_var(hrtimer_bases);
> >  	new_base = &new_cpu_base->clock_base[base->index];
> 
>   Hmm. This can lead to high latencies when you enqueue the timer on
>   the other CPU simply because we can not reprogram the timer hardware
>   on the other CPU in the CONFIG_HIGH_RES=y case.
> 
>   Let's assume we are on CPU0 and try to enqueue the timer on CPU1,
>   where the next timer expiry is 5ms away. The timer which we enqueue
>   is due in 500us. So you introduce 4.5ms latency.
>

We are moving timers to the ilb which wakes up every jiffy.
So we can move the timer to the ilb only if it's expiry
time is greater than 1 jiffy. Else we can fire on the same CPU.
This would prevent any latency from being added, right?

--arun

> Thanks,
> 
> 	tglx
> 
>