diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'kernel/Documentation/thermal/intel_powerclamp.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | kernel/Documentation/thermal/intel_powerclamp.txt | 307 |
1 files changed, 307 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/kernel/Documentation/thermal/intel_powerclamp.txt b/kernel/Documentation/thermal/intel_powerclamp.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..332de4a39 --- /dev/null +++ b/kernel/Documentation/thermal/intel_powerclamp.txt @@ -0,0 +1,307 @@ + ======================= + INTEL POWERCLAMP DRIVER + ======================= +By: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com> + Jacob Pan <jacob.jun.pan@linux.intel.com> + +Contents: + (*) Introduction + - Goals and Objectives + + (*) Theory of Operation + - Idle Injection + - Calibration + + (*) Performance Analysis + - Effectiveness and Limitations + - Power vs Performance + - Scalability + - Calibration + - Comparison with Alternative Techniques + + (*) Usage and Interfaces + - Generic Thermal Layer (sysfs) + - Kernel APIs (TBD) + +============ +INTRODUCTION +============ + +Consider the situation where a system’s power consumption must be +reduced at runtime, due to power budget, thermal constraint, or noise +level, and where active cooling is not preferred. Software managed +passive power reduction must be performed to prevent the hardware +actions that are designed for catastrophic scenarios. + +Currently, P-states, T-states (clock modulation), and CPU offlining +are used for CPU throttling. + +On Intel CPUs, C-states provide effective power reduction, but so far +they’re only used opportunistically, based on workload. With the +development of intel_powerclamp driver, the method of synchronizing +idle injection across all online CPU threads was introduced. The goal +is to achieve forced and controllable C-state residency. + +Test/Analysis has been made in the areas of power, performance, +scalability, and user experience. In many cases, clear advantage is +shown over taking the CPU offline or modulating the CPU clock. + + +=================== +THEORY OF OPERATION +=================== + +Idle Injection +-------------- + +On modern Intel processors (Nehalem or later), package level C-state +residency is available in MSRs, thus also available to the kernel. + +These MSRs are: + #define MSR_PKG_C2_RESIDENCY 0x60D + #define MSR_PKG_C3_RESIDENCY 0x3F8 + #define MSR_PKG_C6_RESIDENCY 0x3F9 + #define MSR_PKG_C7_RESIDENCY 0x3FA + +If the kernel can also inject idle time to the system, then a +closed-loop control system can be established that manages package +level C-state. The intel_powerclamp driver is conceived as such a +control system, where the target set point is a user-selected idle +ratio (based on power reduction), and the error is the difference +between the actual package level C-state residency ratio and the target idle +ratio. + +Injection is controlled by high priority kernel threads, spawned for +each online CPU. + +These kernel threads, with SCHED_FIFO class, are created to perform +clamping actions of controlled duty ratio and duration. Each per-CPU +thread synchronizes its idle time and duration, based on the rounding +of jiffies, so accumulated errors can be prevented to avoid a jittery +effect. Threads are also bound to the CPU such that they cannot be +migrated, unless the CPU is taken offline. In this case, threads +belong to the offlined CPUs will be terminated immediately. + +Running as SCHED_FIFO and relatively high priority, also allows such +scheme to work for both preemptable and non-preemptable kernels. +Alignment of idle time around jiffies ensures scalability for HZ +values. This effect can be better visualized using a Perf timechart. +The following diagram shows the behavior of kernel thread +kidle_inject/cpu. During idle injection, it runs monitor/mwait idle +for a given "duration", then relinquishes the CPU to other tasks, +until the next time interval. + +The NOHZ schedule tick is disabled during idle time, but interrupts +are not masked. Tests show that the extra wakeups from scheduler tick +have a dramatic impact on the effectiveness of the powerclamp driver +on large scale systems (Westmere system with 80 processors). + +CPU0 + ____________ ____________ +kidle_inject/0 | sleep | mwait | sleep | + _________| |________| |_______ + duration +CPU1 + ____________ ____________ +kidle_inject/1 | sleep | mwait | sleep | + _________| |________| |_______ + ^ + | + | + roundup(jiffies, interval) + +Only one CPU is allowed to collect statistics and update global +control parameters. This CPU is referred to as the controlling CPU in +this document. The controlling CPU is elected at runtime, with a +policy that favors BSP, taking into account the possibility of a CPU +hot-plug. + +In terms of dynamics of the idle control system, package level idle +time is considered largely as a non-causal system where its behavior +cannot be based on the past or current input. Therefore, the +intel_powerclamp driver attempts to enforce the desired idle time +instantly as given input (target idle ratio). After injection, +powerclamp moniors the actual idle for a given time window and adjust +the next injection accordingly to avoid over/under correction. + +When used in a causal control system, such as a temperature control, +it is up to the user of this driver to implement algorithms where +past samples and outputs are included in the feedback. For example, a +PID-based thermal controller can use the powerclamp driver to +maintain a desired target temperature, based on integral and +derivative gains of the past samples. + + + +Calibration +----------- +During scalability testing, it is observed that synchronized actions +among CPUs become challenging as the number of cores grows. This is +also true for the ability of a system to enter package level C-states. + +To make sure the intel_powerclamp driver scales well, online +calibration is implemented. The goals for doing such a calibration +are: + +a) determine the effective range of idle injection ratio +b) determine the amount of compensation needed at each target ratio + +Compensation to each target ratio consists of two parts: + + a) steady state error compensation + This is to offset the error occurring when the system can + enter idle without extra wakeups (such as external interrupts). + + b) dynamic error compensation + When an excessive amount of wakeups occurs during idle, an + additional idle ratio can be added to quiet interrupts, by + slowing down CPU activities. + +A debugfs file is provided for the user to examine compensation +progress and results, such as on a Westmere system. +[jacob@nex01 ~]$ cat +/sys/kernel/debug/intel_powerclamp/powerclamp_calib +controlling cpu: 0 +pct confidence steady dynamic (compensation) +0 0 0 0 +1 1 0 0 +2 1 1 0 +3 3 1 0 +4 3 1 0 +5 3 1 0 +6 3 1 0 +7 3 1 0 +8 3 1 0 +... +30 3 2 0 +31 3 2 0 +32 3 1 0 +33 3 2 0 +34 3 1 0 +35 3 2 0 +36 3 1 0 +37 3 2 0 +38 3 1 0 +39 3 2 0 +40 3 3 0 +41 3 1 0 +42 3 2 0 +43 3 1 0 +44 3 1 0 +45 3 2 0 +46 3 3 0 +47 3 0 0 +48 3 2 0 +49 3 3 0 + +Calibration occurs during runtime. No offline method is available. +Steady state compensation is used only when confidence levels of all +adjacent ratios have reached satisfactory level. A confidence level +is accumulated based on clean data collected at runtime. Data +collected during a period without extra interrupts is considered +clean. + +To compensate for excessive amounts of wakeup during idle, additional +idle time is injected when such a condition is detected. Currently, +we have a simple algorithm to double the injection ratio. A possible +enhancement might be to throttle the offending IRQ, such as delaying +EOI for level triggered interrupts. But it is a challenge to be +non-intrusive to the scheduler or the IRQ core code. + + +CPU Online/Offline +------------------ +Per-CPU kernel threads are started/stopped upon receiving +notifications of CPU hotplug activities. The intel_powerclamp driver +keeps track of clamping kernel threads, even after they are migrated +to other CPUs, after a CPU offline event. + + +===================== +Performance Analysis +===================== +This section describes the general performance data collected on +multiple systems, including Westmere (80P) and Ivy Bridge (4P, 8P). + +Effectiveness and Limitations +----------------------------- +The maximum range that idle injection is allowed is capped at 50 +percent. As mentioned earlier, since interrupts are allowed during +forced idle time, excessive interrupts could result in less +effectiveness. The extreme case would be doing a ping -f to generated +flooded network interrupts without much CPU acknowledgement. In this +case, little can be done from the idle injection threads. In most +normal cases, such as scp a large file, applications can be throttled +by the powerclamp driver, since slowing down the CPU also slows down +network protocol processing, which in turn reduces interrupts. + +When control parameters change at runtime by the controlling CPU, it +may take an additional period for the rest of the CPUs to catch up +with the changes. During this time, idle injection is out of sync, +thus not able to enter package C- states at the expected ratio. But +this effect is minor, in that in most cases change to the target +ratio is updated much less frequently than the idle injection +frequency. + +Scalability +----------- +Tests also show a minor, but measurable, difference between the 4P/8P +Ivy Bridge system and the 80P Westmere server under 50% idle ratio. +More compensation is needed on Westmere for the same amount of +target idle ratio. The compensation also increases as the idle ratio +gets larger. The above reason constitutes the need for the +calibration code. + +On the IVB 8P system, compared to an offline CPU, powerclamp can +achieve up to 40% better performance per watt. (measured by a spin +counter summed over per CPU counting threads spawned for all running +CPUs). + +==================== +Usage and Interfaces +==================== +The powerclamp driver is registered to the generic thermal layer as a +cooling device. Currently, it’s not bound to any thermal zones. + +jacob@chromoly:/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device14$ grep . * +cur_state:0 +max_state:50 +type:intel_powerclamp + +Example usage: +- To inject 25% idle time +$ sudo sh -c "echo 25 > /sys/class/thermal/cooling_device80/cur_state +" + +If the system is not busy and has more than 25% idle time already, +then the powerclamp driver will not start idle injection. Using Top +will not show idle injection kernel threads. + +If the system is busy (spin test below) and has less than 25% natural +idle time, powerclamp kernel threads will do idle injection, which +appear running to the scheduler. But the overall system idle is still +reflected. In this example, 24.1% idle is shown. This helps the +system admin or user determine the cause of slowdown, when a +powerclamp driver is in action. + + +Tasks: 197 total, 1 running, 196 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie +Cpu(s): 71.2%us, 4.7%sy, 0.0%ni, 24.1%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st +Mem: 3943228k total, 1689632k used, 2253596k free, 74960k buffers +Swap: 4087804k total, 0k used, 4087804k free, 945336k cached + + PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND + 3352 jacob 20 0 262m 644 428 S 286 0.0 0:17.16 spin + 3341 root -51 0 0 0 0 D 25 0.0 0:01.62 kidle_inject/0 + 3344 root -51 0 0 0 0 D 25 0.0 0:01.60 kidle_inject/3 + 3342 root -51 0 0 0 0 D 25 0.0 0:01.61 kidle_inject/1 + 3343 root -51 0 0 0 0 D 25 0.0 0:01.60 kidle_inject/2 + 2935 jacob 20 0 696m 125m 35m S 5 3.3 0:31.11 firefox + 1546 root 20 0 158m 20m 6640 S 3 0.5 0:26.97 Xorg + 2100 jacob 20 0 1223m 88m 30m S 3 2.3 0:23.68 compiz + +Tests have shown that by using the powerclamp driver as a cooling +device, a PID based userspace thermal controller can manage to +control CPU temperature effectively, when no other thermal influence +is added. For example, a UltraBook user can compile the kernel under +certain temperature (below most active trip points). |