[PATCH v5 0/8] qspinlock: a 4-byte queue spinlock with PV support

[Waiman Long <Waiman.Long@hp.com>]

v4->v5:
 - Move the optimized 2-task contending code to the generic file to
   enable more architectures to use it without code duplication.
 - Address some of the style-related comments by PeterZ.
 - Allow the use of unfair queue spinlock in a real para-virtualized
   execution environment.
 - Add para-virtualization support to the qspinlock code by ensuring
   that the lock holder and queue head stay alive as much as possible.

v3->v4:
 - Remove debugging code and fix a configuration error
 - Simplify the qspinlock structure and streamline the code to make it
   perform a bit better
 - Add an x86 version of asm/qspinlock.h for holding x86 specific
   optimization.
 - Add an optimized x86 code path for 2 contending tasks to improve
   low contention performance.

v2->v3:
 - Simplify the code by using numerous mode only without an unfair option.
 - Use the latest smp_load_acquire()/smp_store_release() barriers.
 - Move the queue spinlock code to kernel/locking.
 - Make the use of queue spinlock the default for x86-64 without user
   configuration.
 - Additional performance tuning.

v1->v2:
 - Add some more comments to document what the code does.
 - Add a numerous CPU mode to support >= 16K CPUs
 - Add a configuration option to allow lock stealing which can further
   improve performance in many cases.
 - Enable wakeup of queue head CPU at unlock time for non-numerous
   CPU mode.

This patch set has 3 different sections:
 1) Patches 1-3: Introduces a queue-based spinlock implementation that
    can replace the default ticket spinlock without increasing the
    size of the spinlock data structure. As a result, critical kernel
    data structures that embed spinlock won't increase in size and
    breaking data alignments.
 2) Patches 4 and 5: Enables the use of unfair queue spinlock in a
    real para-virtualized execution environment. This can resolve
    some of the locking related performance issues due to the fact
    that the next CPU to get the lock may have been scheduled out
    for a period of time.
 3) Patches 6-8: Enable qspinlock para-virtualization support by making
    sure that the lock holder and the queue head stay alive as long as
    possible.

Patches 1-3 are fully tested and ready for production. Patches 4-8, on
the other hands, are not fully tested. They have undergone compilation
tests with various combinations of kernel config setting and boot-up
tests in a non-virtualized setting. Further tests and performance
characterization are still needed to be done in a KVM guest. So
comments on them are welcomed. Suggestions or recommendations on how
to add PV support in the Xen environment are also needed.

The queue spinlock has slightly better performance than the ticket
spinlock in uncontended case. Its performance can be much better
with moderate to heavy contention.  This patch has the potential of
improving the performance of all the workloads that have moderate to
heavy spinlock contention.

The queue spinlock is especially suitable for NUMA machines with at
least 2 sockets, though noticeable performance benefit probably won't
show up in machines with less than 4 sockets.

The purpose of this patch set is not to solve any particular spinlock
contention problems. Those need to be solved by refactoring the code
to make more efficient use of the lock or finer granularity ones. The
main purpose is to make the lock contention problems more tolerable
until someone can spend the time and effort to fix them.

Waiman Long (8):
  qspinlock: Introducing a 4-byte queue spinlock implementation
  qspinlock, x86: Enable x86-64 to use queue spinlock
  qspinlock, x86: Add x86 specific optimization for 2 contending tasks
  pvqspinlock, x86: Allow unfair spinlock in a real PV environment
  pvqspinlock, x86: Enable unfair queue spinlock in a KVM guest
  pvqspinlock, x86: Rename paravirt_ticketlocks_enabled
  pvqspinlock, x86: Add qspinlock para-virtualization support
  pvqspinlock, x86: Enable KVM to use qspinlock's PV support

 arch/x86/Kconfig                      |   12 +
 arch/x86/include/asm/paravirt.h       |    9 +-
 arch/x86/include/asm/paravirt_types.h |   12 +
 arch/x86/include/asm/pvqspinlock.h    |  176 ++++++++++
 arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h      |  133 +++++++
 arch/x86/include/asm/spinlock.h       |    9 +-
 arch/x86/include/asm/spinlock_types.h |    4 +
 arch/x86/kernel/Makefile              |    1 +
 arch/x86/kernel/kvm.c                 |   73 ++++-
 arch/x86/kernel/paravirt-spinlocks.c  |   15 +-
 arch/x86/xen/spinlock.c               |    2 +-
 include/asm-generic/qspinlock.h       |  122 +++++++
 include/asm-generic/qspinlock_types.h |   61 ++++
 kernel/Kconfig.locks                  |    7 +
 kernel/locking/Makefile               |    1 +
 kernel/locking/qspinlock.c            |  610 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 16 files changed, 1239 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 arch/x86/include/asm/pvqspinlock.h
 create mode 100644 arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h
 create mode 100644 include/asm-generic/qspinlock.h
 create mode 100644 include/asm-generic/qspinlock_types.h
 create mode 100644 kernel/locking/qspinlock.c