The comment above the condition `if (cpu->last_sample_time)` clearly
indicates that the branch is taken for the vast majority of invocations
after the first sample in a cycle. The first sample is a one-time
initialization case.

Add likely() hint to the condition to improve branch prediction for
this performance-critical path in intel_pstate_sample().

Signed-off-by: Yaxiong Tian <tianyaxiong@kylinos.cn>
---
 drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c b/drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c
index 2519eb527468..d540f2ab9a52 100644
--- a/drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c
+++ b/drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c
@@ -2531,7 +2531,7 @@ static inline bool intel_pstate_sample(struct cpudata *cpu, u64 time)
 	 * that sample.time will always be reset before setting the utilization
 	 * update hook and make the caller skip the sample then.
 	 */
-	if (cpu->last_sample_time) {
+	if (likely(cpu->last_sample_time)) {
 		intel_pstate_calc_avg_perf(cpu);
 		return true;
 	}
-- 
2.25.1

On Fri, Sep 12, 2025 at 9:35 AM Yaxiong Tian <tianyaxiong@kylinos.cn> wrote:
>
> The comment above the condition `if (cpu->last_sample_time)` clearly
> indicates that the branch is taken for the vast majority of invocations
> after the first sample in a cycle. The first sample is a one-time
> initialization case.
>
> Add likely() hint to the condition to improve branch prediction for
> this performance-critical path in intel_pstate_sample().
>
> Signed-off-by: Yaxiong Tian <tianyaxiong@kylinos.cn>
> ---
>  drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c b/drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c
> index 2519eb527468..d540f2ab9a52 100644
> --- a/drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c
> +++ b/drivers/cpufreq/intel_pstate.c
> @@ -2531,7 +2531,7 @@ static inline bool intel_pstate_sample(struct cpudata *cpu, u64 time)
>          * that sample.time will always be reset before setting the utilization
>          * update hook and make the caller skip the sample then.
>          */
> -       if (cpu->last_sample_time) {
> +       if (likely(cpu->last_sample_time)) {
>                 intel_pstate_calc_avg_perf(cpu);
>                 return true;
>         }
> --

Applied as 6.18 material, thanks!