kernel/sched/cpupri.h | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
When running a multi-instance FFmpeg workload on an HCC system, significant
cache line contention is observed around `cpupri_vec->count` and `mask` in
struct root_domain.
The SUT is a 2-socket machine with 240 physical cores and 480 logical
CPUs. 60 FFmpeg instances are launched, each pinned to 4 physical cores
(8 logical CPUs) for transcoding tasks. Sub-threads use RT priority 99
with FIFO scheduling. FPS is used as score.
perf c2c tool reveals:
root_domain cache line 3:
- `cpupri->pri_to_cpu[0].count` (offset 0x38) is heavily loaded/stored
and contends with other fields, since counts[0] is more frequently
updated than others along with a rt task enqueues an empty runq or
dequeues from a non-overloaded runq.
- cycles per load: ~10K to 59K
cpupri's last cache line:
- `cpupri_vec->count` and `mask` contends. The transcoding threads use
rt pri 99, so that the contention occurs in the end.
- cycles per load: ~1.5K to 10.5K
This change mitigates `cpupri_vec->count`, `mask` related contentions by
separating each count and mask into different cache lines.
As a result:
- FPS improves by ~11%
- Kernel cycles% drops from ~20% to ~11%
- `count` and `mask` related cache line contention is mitigated, perf c2c
shows root_domain cache line 3 `cycles per load` drops from ~10K-59K
to ~0.5K-8K, cpupri's last cache line no longer appears in the report.
- stress-ng cyclic benchmark is improved ~31.4%, command:
stress-ng/stress-ng --cyclic $(nproc) --cyclic-policy fifo \
--timeout 30 --minimize --metrics
- rt-tests/pi_stress is improved ~76.5%, command:
rt-tests/pi_stress -D 30 -g $(($(nproc) / 2))
- sched_normal tests hackbench and schbench are unaffected.
Appendix:
1. Current layout of contended data structure:
struct root_domain {
...
struct irq_work rto_push_work; /* 120 32 */
/* --- cacheline 2 boundary (128 bytes) was 24 bytes ago --- */
raw_spinlock_t rto_lock; /* 152 4 */
int rto_loop; /* 156 4 */
int rto_cpu; /* 160 4 */
atomic_t rto_loop_next; /* 164 4 */
atomic_t rto_loop_start; /* 168 4 */
/* XXX 4 bytes hole, try to pack */
cpumask_var_t rto_mask; /* 176 8 */
/* --- cacheline 3 boundary (192 bytes) was 8 bytes hence --- */
struct cpupri cpupri; /* 184 1624 */
/* --- cacheline 28 boundary (1792 bytes) was 16 bytes ago --- */
struct perf_domain * pd; /* 1808 8 */
/* size: 1816, cachelines: 29, members: 21 */
/* sum members: 1802, holes: 3, sum holes: 14 */
/* forced alignments: 1 */
/* last cacheline: 24 bytes */
} __attribute__((__aligned__(8)));
2. Perf c2c report of root_domain cache line 3:
------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------------------------
Rmt Lcl Store Data Load Total Symbol
Hitm% Hitm% L1 Hit% offset cycles records
------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------------------------
353 44 62 0xff14d42c400e3880
------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------------------------
0.00% 2.27% 0.00% 0x0 21683 6 __flush_smp_call_function_
0.00% 2.27% 0.00% 0x0 22294 5 __flush_smp_call_function_
0.28% 0.00% 0.00% 0x0 0 2 irq_work_queue_on
0.28% 0.00% 0.00% 0x0 27824 4 irq_work_single
0.00% 0.00% 1.61% 0x0 28151 6 irq_work_queue_on
0.57% 0.00% 0.00% 0x18 21822 8 native_queued_spin_lock_sl
0.28% 2.27% 0.00% 0x18 16101 10 native_queued_spin_lock_sl
0.57% 0.00% 0.00% 0x18 33199 5 native_queued_spin_lock_sl
0.00% 0.00% 1.61% 0x18 10908 32 _raw_spin_lock
0.00% 0.00% 1.61% 0x18 59770 2 _raw_spin_lock
0.00% 0.00% 1.61% 0x18 0 1 _raw_spin_unlock
1.42% 0.00% 0.00% 0x20 12918 20 pull_rt_task
0.85% 0.00% 25.81% 0x24 31123 199 pull_rt_task
0.85% 0.00% 3.23% 0x24 38218 24 pull_rt_task
0.57% 4.55% 19.35% 0x28 30558 207 pull_rt_task
0.28% 0.00% 0.00% 0x28 55504 10 pull_rt_task
18.70% 18.18% 0.00% 0x30 26438 291 dequeue_pushable_task
17.28% 22.73% 0.00% 0x30 29347 281 enqueue_pushable_task
1.70% 2.27% 0.00% 0x30 12819 31 enqueue_pushable_task
0.28% 0.00% 0.00% 0x30 17726 18 dequeue_pushable_task
34.56% 29.55% 0.00% 0x38 25509 527 cpupri_find_fitness
13.88% 11.36% 24.19% 0x38 30654 342 cpupri_set
3.12% 2.27% 0.00% 0x38 18093 39 cpupri_set
1.70% 0.00% 0.00% 0x38 37661 52 cpupri_find_fitness
1.42% 2.27% 19.35% 0x38 31110 211 cpupri_set
1.42% 0.00% 1.61% 0x38 45035 31 cpupri_set
3. Perf c2c report of cpupri's last cache line
------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------------------------
Rmt Lcl Store Data Load Total Symbol
Hitm% Hitm% L1 Hit% offset cycles records
------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------------------------
149 43 41 0xff14d42c400e3ec0
------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------------------------
8.72% 11.63% 0.00% 0x8 2001 165 cpupri_find_fitness
1.34% 2.33% 0.00% 0x18 1456 151 cpupri_find_fitness
8.72% 9.30% 58.54% 0x28 1744 263 cpupri_set
2.01% 4.65% 41.46% 0x28 1958 301 cpupri_set
1.34% 0.00% 0.00% 0x28 10580 6 cpupri_set
69.80% 67.44% 0.00% 0x30 1754 347 cpupri_set
8.05% 4.65% 0.00% 0x30 2144 256 cpupri_set
Signed-off-by: Pan Deng <pan.deng@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Tianyou Li <tianyou.li@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Chen Yu <yu.c.chen@intel.com>
Reviewed-by: Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com>
---
Changes since v1：
- Use ____cacheline_aligned_in_smp instead of ____cacheline_aligned to
avoid wasting memory on UP systems.
kernel/sched/cpupri.h | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/kernel/sched/cpupri.h b/kernel/sched/cpupri.h
index 6f562088c056..f6bb74517fd6 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/cpupri.h
+++ b/kernel/sched/cpupri.h
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
struct cpupri_vec {
atomic_t count;
- cpumask_var_t mask;
+ cpumask_var_t mask ____cacheline_aligned_in_smp;
};
struct cpupri {
--
2.43.5
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Deng, Pan <pan.deng@intel.com>
> Sent: Thursday, September 4, 2025 10:46 AM
> To: peterz@infradead.org; mingo@kernel.org; juri.lelli@redhat.com;
> vincent.guittot@linaro.org; rostedt@goodmis.org
> Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org; dietmar.eggemann@arm.com;
> bsegall@google.com; mgorman@suse.de; vschneid@redhat.com; Li, Tianyou
> <tianyou.li@intel.com>; Chen, Yu C <yu.c.chen@intel.com>;
> tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com; Deng, Pan <pan.deng@intel.com>
> Subject: [PATCH v3] sched/rt: Optimize cpupri_vec layout to mitigate cache line
> contention
>
> When running a multi-instance FFmpeg workload on an HCC system, significant
> cache line contention is observed around `cpupri_vec->count` and `mask` in
> struct root_domain.
>
> The SUT is a 2-socket machine with 240 physical cores and 480 logical
> CPUs. 60 FFmpeg instances are launched, each pinned to 4 physical cores
> (8 logical CPUs) for transcoding tasks. Sub-threads use RT priority 99
> with FIFO scheduling. FPS is used as score.
>
> perf c2c tool reveals:
> root_domain cache line 3:
> - `cpupri->pri_to_cpu[0].count` (offset 0x38) is heavily loaded/stored
> and contends with other fields, since counts[0] is more frequently
> updated than others along with a rt task enqueues an empty runq or
> dequeues from a non-overloaded runq.
> - cycles per load: ~10K to 59K
>
> cpupri's last cache line:
> - `cpupri_vec->count` and `mask` contends. The transcoding threads use
> rt pri 99, so that the contention occurs in the end.
> - cycles per load: ~1.5K to 10.5K
>
> This change mitigates `cpupri_vec->count`, `mask` related contentions by
> separating each count and mask into different cache lines.
>
> As a result:
> - FPS improves by ~11%
> - Kernel cycles% drops from ~20% to ~11%
> - `count` and `mask` related cache line contention is mitigated, perf c2c
> shows root_domain cache line 3 `cycles per load` drops from ~10K-59K
> to ~0.5K-8K, cpupri's last cache line no longer appears in the report.
> - stress-ng cyclic benchmark is improved ~31.4%, command:
> stress-ng/stress-ng --cyclic $(nproc) --cyclic-policy fifo \
> --timeout 30 --minimize --metrics
> - rt-tests/pi_stress is improved ~76.5%, command:
> rt-tests/pi_stress -D 30 -g $(($(nproc) / 2))
> - sched_normal tests hackbench and schbench are unaffected.
>
> Appendix:
> 1. Current layout of contended data structure:
> struct root_domain {
> ...
> struct irq_work rto_push_work; /* 120 32 */
> /* --- cacheline 2 boundary (128 bytes) was 24 bytes ago --- */
> raw_spinlock_t rto_lock; /* 152 4 */
> int rto_loop; /* 156 4 */
> int rto_cpu; /* 160 4 */
> atomic_t rto_loop_next; /* 164 4 */
> atomic_t rto_loop_start; /* 168 4 */
> /* XXX 4 bytes hole, try to pack */
> cpumask_var_t rto_mask; /* 176 8 */
> /* --- cacheline 3 boundary (192 bytes) was 8 bytes hence --- */
> struct cpupri cpupri; /* 184 1624 */
> /* --- cacheline 28 boundary (1792 bytes) was 16 bytes ago --- */
> struct perf_domain * pd; /* 1808 8 */
> /* size: 1816, cachelines: 29, members: 21 */
> /* sum members: 1802, holes: 3, sum holes: 14 */
> /* forced alignments: 1 */
> /* last cacheline: 24 bytes */
> } __attribute__((__aligned__(8)));
>
> 2. Perf c2c report of root_domain cache line 3:
> ------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------------------------
> Rmt Lcl Store Data Load Total Symbol
> Hitm% Hitm% L1 Hit% offset cycles records
> ------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------------------------
> 353 44 62 0xff14d42c400e3880
> ------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------------------------
> 0.00% 2.27% 0.00% 0x0 21683 6 __flush_smp_call_function_
> 0.00% 2.27% 0.00% 0x0 22294 5 __flush_smp_call_function_
> 0.28% 0.00% 0.00% 0x0 0 2 irq_work_queue_on
> 0.28% 0.00% 0.00% 0x0 27824 4 irq_work_single
> 0.00% 0.00% 1.61% 0x0 28151 6 irq_work_queue_on
> 0.57% 0.00% 0.00% 0x18 21822 8 native_queued_spin_lock_sl
> 0.28% 2.27% 0.00% 0x18 16101 10 native_queued_spin_lock_sl
> 0.57% 0.00% 0.00% 0x18 33199 5 native_queued_spin_lock_sl
> 0.00% 0.00% 1.61% 0x18 10908 32 _raw_spin_lock
> 0.00% 0.00% 1.61% 0x18 59770 2 _raw_spin_lock
> 0.00% 0.00% 1.61% 0x18 0 1 _raw_spin_unlock
> 1.42% 0.00% 0.00% 0x20 12918 20 pull_rt_task
> 0.85% 0.00% 25.81% 0x24 31123 199 pull_rt_task
> 0.85% 0.00% 3.23% 0x24 38218 24 pull_rt_task
> 0.57% 4.55% 19.35% 0x28 30558 207 pull_rt_task
> 0.28% 0.00% 0.00% 0x28 55504 10 pull_rt_task
> 18.70% 18.18% 0.00% 0x30 26438 291 dequeue_pushable_task
> 17.28% 22.73% 0.00% 0x30 29347 281 enqueue_pushable_task
> 1.70% 2.27% 0.00% 0x30 12819 31 enqueue_pushable_task
> 0.28% 0.00% 0.00% 0x30 17726 18 dequeue_pushable_task
> 34.56% 29.55% 0.00% 0x38 25509 527 cpupri_find_fitness
> 13.88% 11.36% 24.19% 0x38 30654 342 cpupri_set
> 3.12% 2.27% 0.00% 0x38 18093 39 cpupri_set
> 1.70% 0.00% 0.00% 0x38 37661 52 cpupri_find_fitness
> 1.42% 2.27% 19.35% 0x38 31110 211 cpupri_set
> 1.42% 0.00% 1.61% 0x38 45035 31 cpupri_set
>
> 3. Perf c2c report of cpupri's last cache line
> ------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------------------------
> Rmt Lcl Store Data Load Total Symbol
> Hitm% Hitm% L1 Hit% offset cycles records
> ------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------------------------
> 149 43 41 0xff14d42c400e3ec0
> ------- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------------------------
> 8.72% 11.63% 0.00% 0x8 2001 165 cpupri_find_fitness
> 1.34% 2.33% 0.00% 0x18 1456 151 cpupri_find_fitness
> 8.72% 9.30% 58.54% 0x28 1744 263 cpupri_set
> 2.01% 4.65% 41.46% 0x28 1958 301 cpupri_set
> 1.34% 0.00% 0.00% 0x28 10580 6 cpupri_set
> 69.80% 67.44% 0.00% 0x30 1754 347 cpupri_set
> 8.05% 4.65% 0.00% 0x30 2144 256 cpupri_set
>
> Signed-off-by: Pan Deng <pan.deng@intel.com>
> Signed-off-by: Tianyou Li <tianyou.li@intel.com>
> Signed-off-by: Chen Yu <yu.c.chen@intel.com>
> Reviewed-by: Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com>
> ---
> Changes since v1：
> - Use ____cacheline_aligned_in_smp instead of ____cacheline_aligned to
> avoid wasting memory on UP systems.
>
> kernel/sched/cpupri.h | 2 +-
> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/kernel/sched/cpupri.h b/kernel/sched/cpupri.h
> index 6f562088c056..f6bb74517fd6 100644
> --- a/kernel/sched/cpupri.h
> +++ b/kernel/sched/cpupri.h
> @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
>
> struct cpupri_vec {
> atomic_t count;
> - cpumask_var_t mask;
> + cpumask_var_t mask ____cacheline_aligned_in_smp;
> };
>
> struct cpupri {
> --
> 2.43.5
@peterz, @mingo, @rostedt,
could you please take a look at this patch? Any comment is very appreciated.
Thanks
Pan
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