linux/kernel
Waiman Long 0dc8c730c9 mutex: Make more scalable by doing less atomic operations
In the __mutex_lock_common() function, an initial entry into
the lock slow path will cause two atomic_xchg instructions to be
issued. Together with the atomic decrement in the fast path, a
total of three atomic read-modify-write instructions will be
issued in rapid succession. This can cause a lot of cache
bouncing when many tasks are trying to acquire the mutex at the
same time.

This patch will reduce the number of atomic_xchg instructions
used by checking the counter value first before issuing the
instruction. The atomic_read() function is just a simple memory
read. The atomic_xchg() function, on the other hand, can be up
to 2 order of magnitude or even more in cost when compared with
atomic_read(). By using atomic_read() to check the value first
before calling atomic_xchg(), we can avoid a lot of unnecessary
cache coherency traffic. The only downside with this change is
that a task on the slow path will have a tiny bit less chance of
getting the mutex when competing with another task in the fast
path.

The same is true for the atomic_cmpxchg() function in the
mutex-spin-on-owner loop. So an atomic_read() is also performed
before calling atomic_cmpxchg().

The mutex locking and unlocking code for the x86 architecture
can allow any negative number to be used in the mutex count to
indicate that some tasks are waiting for the mutex. I am not so
sure if that is the case for the other architectures. So the
default is to avoid atomic_xchg() if the count has already been
set to -1. For x86, the check is modified to include all
negative numbers to cover a larger case.

The following table shows the jobs per minutes (JPM) scalability
data on an 8-node 80-core Westmere box with a 3.7.10 kernel. The
numactl command is used to restrict the running of the
high_systime workloads to 1/2/4/8 nodes with hyperthreading on
and off.

+-----------------+-----------+------------+----------+
|  Configuration  | Mean JPM  |  Mean JPM  | % Change |
|		  | w/o patch | with patch |	      |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------+
|		  |      User Range 1100 - 2000	      |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------+
| 8 nodes, HT on  |    36980   |   148590  | +301.8%  |
| 8 nodes, HT off |    42799   |   145011  | +238.8%  |
| 4 nodes, HT on  |    61318   |   118445  |  +51.1%  |
| 4 nodes, HT off |   158481   |   158592  |   +0.1%  |
| 2 nodes, HT on  |   180602   |   173967  |   -3.7%  |
| 2 nodes, HT off |   198409   |   198073  |   -0.2%  |
| 1 node , HT on  |   149042   |   147671  |   -0.9%  |
| 1 node , HT off |   126036   |   126533  |   +0.4%  |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------+
|		  |       User Range 200 - 1000	      |
+-----------------+-----------------------------------+
| 8 nodes, HT on  |   41525    |   122349  | +194.6%  |
| 8 nodes, HT off |   49866    |   124032  | +148.7%  |
| 4 nodes, HT on  |   66409    |   106984  |  +61.1%  |
| 4 nodes, HT off |  119880    |   130508  |   +8.9%  |
| 2 nodes, HT on  |  138003    |   133948  |   -2.9%  |
| 2 nodes, HT off |  132792    |   131997  |   -0.6%  |
| 1 node , HT on  |  116593    |   115859  |   -0.6%  |
| 1 node , HT off |  104499    |   104597  |   +0.1%  |
+-----------------+------------+-----------+----------+

At low user range 10-100, the JPM differences were within +/-1%.
So they are not that interesting.

AIM7 benchmark run has a pretty large run-to-run variance due to
random nature of the subtests executed. So a difference of less
than +-5% may not be really significant.

This patch improves high_systime workload performance at 4 nodes
and up by maintaining transaction rates without significant
drop-off at high node count.  The patch has practically no
impact on 1 and 2 nodes system.

The table below shows the percentage time (as reported by perf
record -a -s -g) spent on the __mutex_lock_slowpath() function
by the high_systime workload at 1500 users for 2/4/8-node
configurations with hyperthreading off.

+---------------+-----------------+------------------+---------+
| Configuration | %Time w/o patch | %Time with patch | %Change |
+---------------+-----------------+------------------+---------+
|    8 nodes    |      65.34%     |      0.69%       |  -99%   |
|    4 nodes    |       8.70%	  |      1.02%	     |  -88%   |
|    2 nodes    |       0.41%     |      0.32%       |  -22%   |
+---------------+-----------------+------------------+---------+

It is obvious that the dramatic performance improvement at 8
nodes was due to the drastic cut in the time spent within the
__mutex_lock_slowpath() function.

The table below show the improvements in other AIM7 workloads
(at 8 nodes, hyperthreading off).

+--------------+---------------+----------------+-----------------+
|   Workload   | mean % change | mean % change  | mean % change   |
|              | 10-100 users  | 200-1000 users | 1100-2000 users |
+--------------+---------------+----------------+-----------------+
| alltests     |     +0.6%     |   +104.2%      |   +185.9%       |
| five_sec     |     +1.9%     |     +0.9%      |     +0.9%       |
| fserver      |     +1.4%     |     -7.7%      |     +5.1%       |
| new_fserver  |     -0.5%     |     +3.2%      |     +3.1%       |
| shared       |    +13.1%     |   +146.1%      |   +181.5%       |
| short        |     +7.4%     |     +5.0%      |     +4.2%       |
+--------------+---------------+----------------+-----------------+

Signed-off-by: Waiman Long <Waiman.Long@hp.com>
Reviewed-by: Davidlohr Bueso <davidlohr.bueso@hp.com>
Reviewed-by: Rik van Riel <riel@redhat.com>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Chandramouleeswaran Aswin <aswin@hp.com>
Cc: Norton: Scott J <scott.norton@hp.com>
Cc: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Cc: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
Cc: Dave Jones <davej@redhat.com>
Cc: Clark Williams <williams@redhat.com>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1366226594-5506-3-git-send-email-Waiman.Long@hp.com
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
2013-04-19 09:33:35 +02:00
..
debug KGDB/KDB fixes and cleanups 2013-03-02 08:31:39 -08:00
events perf: Generate EXIT event only once per task context 2013-03-18 09:47:33 +01:00
gcov kernel/gcov: remove depends on CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL 2013-01-11 11:39:33 -08:00
irq Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs 2013-02-26 20:16:07 -08:00
power Driver core patches for 3.9-rc1 2013-02-21 12:05:51 -08:00
sched mutex: Move mutex spinning code from sched/core.c back to mutex.c 2013-04-19 09:33:34 +02:00
time clockevents: Don't allow dummy broadcast timers 2013-03-07 17:16:11 +01:00
trace Merge branch 'tip/perf/urgent-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rostedt/linux-trace into perf/urgent 2013-03-18 09:48:29 +01:00
.gitignore
acct.c Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs 2013-02-26 20:16:07 -08:00
async.c Merge branch 'for-3.9' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tj/wq 2013-02-19 22:01:33 -08:00
audit_tree.c audit: catch possible NULL audit buffers 2013-01-11 14:54:55 -08:00
audit_watch.c audit: catch possible NULL audit buffers 2013-01-11 14:54:55 -08:00
audit.c kernel/audit.c: avoid negative sleep durations 2013-01-11 14:54:56 -08:00
audit.h audit: optimize audit_compare_dname_path 2012-10-12 00:32:02 -04:00
auditfilter.c audit: fix auditfilter.c kernel-doc warnings 2013-01-10 14:35:23 -08:00
auditsc.c audit: catch possible NULL audit buffers 2013-01-11 14:54:55 -08:00
backtracetest.c
bounds.c
capability.c
cgroup_freezer.c cgroup: rename ->create/post_create/pre_destroy/destroy() to ->css_alloc/online/offline/free() 2012-11-19 08:13:38 -08:00
cgroup.c hlist: drop the node parameter from iterators 2013-02-27 19:10:24 -08:00
compat.c Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/signal 2013-02-23 18:50:11 -08:00
configs.c
context_tracking.c Merge branch 'sched-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2013-02-19 18:19:48 -08:00
cpu_pm.c
cpu.c Merge branch 'smp-hotplug-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2013-02-19 19:04:55 -08:00
cpuset.c Merge branch 'for-3.9-cpuset' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tj/cgroup 2013-02-20 09:18:31 -08:00
crash_dump.c
cred.c Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/ebiederm/user-namespace 2012-12-18 10:55:28 -08:00
delayacct.c cputime: Use accessors to read task cputime stats 2013-01-27 19:23:31 +01:00
dma.c
elfcore.c
exec_domain.c
exit.c Revert "lockdep: check that no locks held at freeze time" 2013-03-31 11:38:33 -07:00
extable.c
fork.c userns: Don't allow CLONE_NEWUSER | CLONE_FS 2013-03-13 15:00:20 -07:00
freezer.c freezer: change ptrace_stop/do_signal_stop to use freezable_schedule() 2012-10-26 14:27:49 -07:00
futex_compat.c Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/signal 2013-02-23 18:50:11 -08:00
futex.c futex: fix kernel-doc notation and spello 2013-03-12 20:42:10 -07:00
groups.c
hrtimer.c Merge branch 'timers-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2013-02-19 19:05:45 -08:00
hung_task.c
irq_work.c Merge branch 'nohz/printk-v8' into irq/core 2013-02-05 00:48:46 +01:00
itimer.c
jump_label.c jump_label: Export jump_label_rate_limit() 2012-08-06 19:00:35 +03:00
kallsyms.c
kcmp.c kcmp: include linux/ptrace.h 2012-12-20 17:40:19 -08:00
Kconfig.freezer
Kconfig.hz
Kconfig.locks locking: Adjust spin lock inlining Kconfig options 2012-09-13 17:56:13 +02:00
Kconfig.preempt
kexec.c kexec: avoid freeing NULL pointer in image_crash_alloc() 2013-02-27 19:10:12 -08:00
kmod.c Merge branch 'master' into for-3.9-async 2013-01-23 09:31:01 -08:00
kprobes.c hlist: drop the node parameter from iterators 2013-02-27 19:10:24 -08:00
ksysfs.c Merge branch 'core-rcu-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2012-12-11 18:10:49 -08:00
kthread.c kthread: use N_MEMORY instead N_HIGH_MEMORY 2012-12-12 17:38:33 -08:00
latencytop.c
lglock.c
lockdep_internals.h
lockdep_proc.c lockdep: Use KSYM_NAME_LEN'ed buffer for __get_key_name() 2012-10-24 12:39:09 +02:00
lockdep_states.h
lockdep.c lockdep: Remove unnecessary 'hlock_next' variable 2013-04-08 17:39:34 +02:00
Makefile Merge branch 'akpm' (final batch from Andrew) 2013-02-27 20:58:09 -08:00
modsign_certificate.S MODSIGN: Avoid using .incbin in C source 2012-12-14 13:06:44 +10:30
modsign_pubkey.c keys: use keyring_alloc() to create module signing keyring 2012-12-20 17:40:21 -08:00
module_signing.c MODSIGN: Don't use enum-type bitfields in module signature info block 2012-12-05 11:27:24 +10:30
module-internal.h MODSIGN: Move the magic string to the end of a module and eliminate the search 2012-10-19 17:30:40 -07:00
module.c Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs 2013-02-26 20:16:07 -08:00
mutex-debug.c
mutex-debug.h
mutex.c mutex: Make more scalable by doing less atomic operations 2013-04-19 09:33:35 +02:00
mutex.h
notifier.c
nsproxy.c Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs 2013-02-26 20:16:07 -08:00
padata.c padata: use __this_cpu_read per-cpu helper 2012-12-06 17:16:23 +08:00
panic.c taint: add explicit flag to show whether lock dep is still OK. 2013-01-21 17:17:57 +10:30
params.c
pid_namespace.c pid: Handle the exit of a multi-threaded init. 2013-03-26 03:41:23 -07:00
pid.c hlist: drop the node parameter from iterators 2013-02-27 19:10:24 -08:00
posix-cpu-timers.c Merge branch 'timers-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2013-02-19 19:05:45 -08:00
posix-timers.c posix-timers: convert to idr_alloc() 2013-02-27 19:10:19 -08:00
printk.c printk: Provide a wake_up_klogd() off-case 2013-03-22 16:41:20 -07:00
profile.c profiling: Remove unused timer hook 2013-01-24 15:37:26 +01:00
ptrace.c uprobes: Add exports for module use 2013-02-08 17:47:13 +01:00
range.c
rcu.h rcu: Provide RCU CPU stall warnings for tiny RCU 2013-01-28 22:06:21 -08:00
rcupdate.c Merge branches 'doctorture.2013.01.29a', 'fixes.2013.01.26a', 'tagcb.2013.01.24a' and 'tiny.2013.01.29b' into HEAD 2013-01-28 22:25:21 -08:00
rcutiny_plugin.h rcu: Provide RCU CPU stall warnings for tiny RCU 2013-01-28 22:06:21 -08:00
rcutiny.c Merge branches 'doctorture.2013.01.29a', 'fixes.2013.01.26a', 'tagcb.2013.01.24a' and 'tiny.2013.01.29b' into HEAD 2013-01-28 22:25:21 -08:00
rcutorture.c rcu: Allow rcutorture to be built at low optimization levels 2013-02-04 12:18:20 -08:00
rcutree_plugin.h rcu: Make rcu_nocb_poll an early_param instead of module_param 2013-01-08 14:12:19 -08:00
rcutree_trace.c rcu: Separate accounting of callbacks from callback-free CPUs 2012-11-16 10:05:57 -08:00
rcutree.c Merge branches 'doctorture.2013.01.29a', 'fixes.2013.01.26a', 'tagcb.2013.01.24a' and 'tiny.2013.01.29b' into HEAD 2013-01-28 22:25:21 -08:00
rcutree.h Merge branches 'doctorture.2013.01.29a', 'fixes.2013.01.26a', 'tagcb.2013.01.24a' and 'tiny.2013.01.29b' into HEAD 2013-01-28 22:25:21 -08:00
relay.c new helper: file_inode(file) 2013-02-22 23:31:31 -05:00
res_counter.c res_counter: return amount of charges after res_counter_uncharge() 2012-12-18 15:02:12 -08:00
resource.c kernel/resource.c: fix stack overflow in __reserve_region_with_split() 2012-10-06 03:05:31 +09:00
rtmutex_common.h
rtmutex-debug.c sched/rt: Move rt specific bits into new header file 2013-02-07 20:51:08 +01:00
rtmutex-debug.h
rtmutex-tester.c locking/rtmutex/tester: Set correct permissions on sysfs files 2013-04-10 14:48:37 +02:00
rtmutex.c sched/rt: Move rt specific bits into new header file 2013-02-07 20:51:08 +01:00
rtmutex.h
rwsem.c lockdep, rwsem: provide down_write_nest_lock() 2013-01-11 14:54:55 -08:00
seccomp.c seccomp: Make syscall skipping and nr changes more consistent 2012-10-02 21:14:29 +10:00
semaphore.c
signal.c kernel/signal.c: use __ARCH_HAS_SA_RESTORER instead of SA_RESTORER 2013-03-13 15:21:45 -07:00
smp.c smp: make smp_call_function_many() use logic similar to smp_call_function_single() 2013-02-21 17:22:20 -08:00
smpboot.c Revert parts of "hlist: drop the node parameter from iterators" 2013-03-08 15:05:34 -08:00
smpboot.h smpboot: Provide infrastructure for percpu hotplug threads 2012-08-13 17:01:07 +02:00
softirq.c Merge branch 'irq-urgent-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2013-03-05 18:10:04 -08:00
spinlock.c
srcu.c srcu: use ACCESS_ONCE() to access sp->completed in srcu_read_lock() 2013-02-07 15:19:36 -08:00
stacktrace.c
stop_machine.c stop_machine: Mark per cpu stopper enabled early 2013-02-26 22:25:17 +01:00
sys_ni.c module: add syscall to load module from fd 2012-12-14 13:05:22 +10:30
sys.c poweroff: change orderly_poweroff() to use schedule_work() 2013-03-22 16:41:20 -07:00
sysctl_binary.c sysctl: fix null checking in bin_dn_node_address() 2013-02-27 19:10:21 -08:00
sysctl.c Initial ARC Linux port with some fixes on top for 3.9-rc1 2013-03-02 07:58:56 -08:00
task_work.c task_work: task_work_add() should not succeed after exit_task_work() 2012-09-13 16:47:34 +02:00
taskstats.c taskstats: cgroupstats_user_cmd() may leak on error 2012-10-06 03:05:31 +09:00
test_kprobes.c
time.c time: don't inline EXPORT_SYMBOL functions 2013-02-21 17:22:19 -08:00
timeconst.bc kernel: Replace timeconst.pl with a bc script 2013-02-16 23:17:25 +01:00
timer.c Merge branch 'sched-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2013-02-19 18:19:48 -08:00
tracepoint.c hlist: drop the node parameter from iterators 2013-02-27 19:10:24 -08:00
tsacct.c cputime: Use accessors to read task cputime stats 2013-01-27 19:23:31 +01:00
uid16.c
up.c
user_namespace.c userns: Restrict when proc and sysfs can be mounted 2013-03-27 07:50:08 -07:00
user-return-notifier.c hlist: drop the node parameter from iterators 2013-02-27 19:10:24 -08:00
user.c userns: Restrict when proc and sysfs can be mounted 2013-03-27 07:50:08 -07:00
utsname_sysctl.c kernel/utsname_sysctl.c: put get/get_uts() into CONFIG_PROC_SYSCTL code block 2013-02-27 19:10:22 -08:00
utsname.c kernel/utsname.c: fix wrong comment about clone_uts_ns() 2013-02-27 19:10:22 -08:00
wait.c propagate name change to comments in kernel source 2012-12-06 10:39:54 +01:00
watchdog.c Merge branch 'core-locking-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2013-02-22 19:25:09 -08:00
workqueue_internal.h workqueue: rename cpu_workqueue to pool_workqueue 2013-02-13 19:29:12 -08:00
workqueue.c Merge branch 'for-3.9-fixes' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tj/wq 2013-03-18 18:47:07 -07:00