Re: [RFC][PATCH v021 8/9] cpufreq: intel_pstate: Introduce hybrid domains

Christian Loehle
2024-12-12T17:04:09Z

On 11/29/24 16:21, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
> From: Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com>
>
> Hybrid platforms contain different types of CPUs. They may differ
> by micro-architecture, by cache topology, by manufacturing process, by
> the interconnect access design etc. Of course, this means that power-
> performance curves for CPUs of different types are generally different.
>
> Because of these differences, CPUs of different types need to be handled
> differently in certain situations and so it is convenient to operate
> groups of CPUs that each contain CPUs of the same type. In intel_pstate,
> each of them will be represented by a struct hybrid_domain object and
> referred to as a hybrid domain.
>
> A key problem is how to identify the type of a CPUs so as to know which
> hybrid domain it belongs to. In principle, there are a few ways to do
> it, but none of them is perfectly reliable.
>
> From the computational perspective, an important factor is how many
> instructions (on average) can be executed by the given CPU when it is
> running at a specific frequency, often referred to as the IPC
> (instructions per cycle) ratio of the given CPU to the least-capable
> CPU in the system. In intel_pstate this ratio is represented by the
> performance-to-frequency scaling factor which needs to be used to get
> a frequency in kHz for a given HWP performance level of the given CPU.
> Since HWP performance levels are in the same units for all CPUs in a
> hybrid system, the smaller the scaling factor, the larger the IPC ratio
> for the given CPU.
>
> Of course, the performance-to-frequency scaling factor must be the
> same for all CPUs of the same type. While it may be the same for CPUs
> of different types, there is only one case in which that actually
> happens (Meteor Lake platforms with two types of E-cores) and it is not
> expected to happen again in the future. Moreover, when it happens,
> there is no straightforward way to distinguish CPUs of different types
> with the same scaling factor in general.
>
> For this reason, the scaling factor is as good as it gets for CPU
> type identification and so it is used for building hybrid domains in
> intel_pstate.
>
> On hybrid systems, every CPU is added to a hybrid domain at the
> initialization time. If a hybrid domain with a matching scaling
> factor is already present at that point, the CPU will be added to it.
> Otherwise, a new hybrid domain will be created and the CPU will be
> put into it. The domain's scaling factor will then be set to the
> one of the new CPU.

Just two irrelevant typos below, although for the unfamiliar maybe an
example debug message output from any Arrow Lake would make this more
concrete?

>
> So far, the new code doesn't do much beyond printing debud messages,

s/debud/debug

> but subsequently the EAS support for intel_pstate will be based on it.
>
> Signed-off-by: Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com>
> ---
> drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c | 57 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 1 file changed, 57 insertions(+)
>
> Index: linux-pm/drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c
> ===================================================================
> --- linux-pm.orig/drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c
> +++ linux-pm/drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c
> @@ -943,6 +943,62 @@ static struct cpudata *hybrid_max_perf_c
> */
> static DEFINE_MUTEX(hybrid_capacity_lock);
>
> +#ifdef CONFIG_ENERGY_MODEL
> +/*
> + * A hybrid domain is a collection of CPUs with the same perf-to-frequency
> + * scaling factor.
> + */
> +struct hybrid_domain {
> + struct hybrid_domain *next;
> + cpumask_t cpumask;
> + int scaling;
> +};
> +
> +static struct hybrid_domain *hybrid_domains;
> +
> +static void hybrid_add_to_domain(struct cpudata *cpudata)
> +{
> + int scaling = cpudata->pstate.scaling;
> + int cpu = cpudata->cpu;
> + struct hybrid_domain *hd;
> +
> + /* Do this only on hubrid platforms. */

s/hubrid/hybrid