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From: Liew Rui Yan <aethernet65535@gmail.com>
To: sj@kernel.org
Cc: damon@lists.linux.dev, linux-mm@kvack.org,
	Liew Rui Yan <aethernet65535@gmail.com>
Subject: [RFC PATCH] mm/damon/ops-common: optimize damon_hot_score()  using fls()
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2026 15:24:31 +0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260320072431.248235-1-aethernet65535@gmail.com> (raw)

The current implementation of damon_hot_score() uses a manual for-loop
to calculate the value of 'age_in_log'. This can be efficiently replaced
by the fls().

In a simulated performance test with 10,000,000 iterations, this
optimization showed a significant reduction in latency:
- Average Latency: Reduced from ~9ns to ~1ns.
- P99 Latency: Reduced from ~60ns to ~41ns.
- Throughput: The loop-based version mostly fell into the 40-50ns range,
  while the fls-based version shifted significantly towards the 20-39ns
  range in the test environment.

Although these results are based on a simulated kernel module test
environment [1], they indicate a clear instruction-level optimization.

[1] https://github.com/aethernet65535/damon-hot-score-fls-optimize/blob/master/test-kernel-module/fls.c

Signed-off-by: Liew Rui Yan <aethernet65535@gmail.com>
---
Note on testing methodology:
I attempted to measure the performance directly within the kernel using
bpftrace, perf, and ktime inside damon_hot_score(). However, the results
were highly unstable (ktime), and in some cases (perf/bpftrace) the
function was difficult to trace reliably (likely due to my own tracing
limitations).

Despite the instability of in-kernel ktime measurements, one thing
remained consistent: the fls-based version significantly improves the
"long tail" latency compared to the for-loop.

Test results from the simulated module:
- fls-based:
    DAMON Perf Test: Starting 10000000 iterations
    =============================================
     Total Iterations : 10000000
     Average Latency  : 1 ns
     P95 Latency      : 40 ns
     P99 Latency      : 41 ns
    ---------------------------------------------
     Range (ns)      | Count    | Percent
    ---------------------------------------------
     20-39           | 3522000  |   35%
     40-59           | 6478000  |   64%
     60-79           | 0        |    0%
    =============================================

- for-loop:
    DAMON Perf Test: Starting 10000000 iterations
    =============================================
     Total Iterations : 10000000
     Average Latency  : 9 ns
     P95 Latency      : 51 ns
     P99 Latency      : 60 ns
    ---------------------------------------------
     Range (ns)      | Count    | Percent
    ---------------------------------------------
     20-39           | 0        |    0%
     40-59           | 9894000  |   98%
     60-79           | 98000    |    0%
    =============================================

Full raw benchmark results can be found at [2].

If anyone could suggest a more robust way to profile this specific
function within live DAMON context, I would greatly appreciate the
guidance.

[2] https://github.com/aethernet65535/damon-hot-score-fls-optimize/tree/master/result-raw

 mm/damon/ops-common.c | 4 +---
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/mm/damon/ops-common.c b/mm/damon/ops-common.c
index 8c6d613425c1..0294de61a23a 100644
--- a/mm/damon/ops-common.c
+++ b/mm/damon/ops-common.c
@@ -117,9 +117,7 @@ int damon_hot_score(struct damon_ctx *c, struct damon_region *r,
 		damon_max_nr_accesses(&c->attrs);
 
 	age_in_sec = (unsigned long)r->age * c->attrs.aggr_interval / 1000000;
-	for (age_in_log = 0; age_in_log < DAMON_MAX_AGE_IN_LOG && age_in_sec;
-			age_in_log++, age_in_sec >>= 1)
-		;
+	age_in_log = min_t(int, fls(age_in_sec), DAMON_MAX_AGE_IN_LOG);
 
 	/* If frequency is 0, higher age means it's colder */
 	if (freq_subscore == 0)
-- 
2.53.0



             reply	other threads:[~2026-03-20  7:24 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-03-20  7:24 Liew Rui Yan [this message]
2026-03-20 15:05 ` [RFC PATCH] mm/damon/ops-common: optimize damon_hot_score() using fls() SeongJae Park
2026-03-20 19:20   ` [PATCH v2] mm/damon/ops-common: optimize damon_hot_score() using ilog2() Liew Rui Yan
2026-03-21  0:23     ` SeongJae Park

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