Re: [RFC] time: xtime_lock is held too long

Andi Kleen
2011-05-06T16:54:06Z

> Then precise measurements have to be done on the source of cache misses, the
> total cost of the timer interrupt, etc.

What we did was profiling the remote node cache misses
using raw offcore events, and the xtime code was high up.
I cannot share exact numbers for various reasons, but it was
an improvement on a hard to improve workload.

> I.e. this should be analyzed and improved properly, not just sloppily slapping
> a few prefetches here and there, which wont really *solve* anything ...

Well it made things faster. That's definitely something.

I agree the cache lines need to be consolidated in a proper way.

But well placed prefetches by themselves can be a useful tool,
and placing them based on stable profile results is not "sloppy".

-Andi