From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Avi Kivity Subject: Re: [patch 00/13] RFC: split the global mutex Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:10:18 +0300 Message-ID: <480C2FCA.3070700@qumranet.com> References: <20080417201021.515148882@localhost.localdomain> <480B2624.9040805@qumranet.com> <20080421000041.GA30537@dmt> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: kvm-devel To: Marcelo Tosatti Return-path: In-Reply-To: <20080421000041.GA30537@dmt> List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: kvm-devel-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net Errors-To: kvm-devel-bounces@lists.sourceforge.net List-Id: kvm.vger.kernel.org Marcelo Tosatti wrote: > On Sun, Apr 20, 2008 at 02:16:52PM +0300, Avi Kivity wrote: > >>> The iperf numbers are pretty good. Performance of UP guests increase >>> slightly but SMP >>> is quite significant. >>> >> I expect you're seeing contention induced by memcpy()s and inefficient >> emulation. With the dma api, I expect the benefit will drop. >> > > You still have to memcpy() with the dma api. Even with vringfd the > kernel->user copy has to be performed under the global mutex protection, > difference being that several packets can be copied per-syscall instead > of only one. > > Block does the copy outside the mutex protection, so net can be adapted to do the same. It does mean we will need to block all I/O temporarily during memory hotplug. >> For pure cpu emulation, there is a ton of work to be done: protecting >> the translator as well as making the translated code smp safe. >> > > I now believe there is a lot of work (which was not clear before). > Not particularly interested in getting real emulation to be > multithreaded. > > Anyways, the lack of multithreading in qemu emulation should not be a > blocker for these patches to get in, since these are infrastructural > changes. > > Getting this into qemu upstream is essential as this is far more intrusive than anything else we've done. But again, I believe there are many other fruit hanging from lower branches. -- Do not meddle in the internals of kernels, for they are subtle and quick to panic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by the 2008 JavaOne(SM) Conference Don't miss this year's exciting event. There's still time to save $100. Use priority code J8TL2D2. http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;198757673;13503038;p?http://java.sun.com/javaone