Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S933349Ab3HNVxD (ORCPT ); Wed, 14 Aug 2013 17:53:03 -0400 Received: from e7.ny.us.ibm.com ([32.97.182.137]:34097 "EHLO e7.ny.us.ibm.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S933258Ab3HNVxB (ORCPT ); Wed, 14 Aug 2013 17:53:01 -0400 Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 16:52:53 -0500 From: Seth Jennings To: Yinghai Lu Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman , "H. Peter Anvin" , Dave Hansen , Nathan Fontenot , Cody P Schafer , Andrew Morton , Lai Jiangshan , "Rafael J. Wysocki" , Linux Kernel Mailing List , Linux MM Subject: Re: [RFC][PATCH] drivers: base: dynamic memory block creation Message-ID: <20130814215253.GC17423@variantweb.net> References: <1376508705-3188-1-git-send-email-sjenning@linux.vnet.ibm.com> <20130814194348.GB10469@kroah.com> <520BE30D.3070401@sr71.net> <20130814203546.GA6200@kroah.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-TM-AS-MML: No X-Content-Scanned: Fidelis XPS MAILER x-cbid: 13081421-5806-0000-0000-0000226DCB14 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2778 Lines: 56 On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 02:37:26PM -0700, Yinghai Lu wrote: > On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 1:35 PM, Greg Kroah-Hartman > wrote: > > On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 01:05:33PM -0700, Dave Hansen wrote: > >> On 08/14/2013 12:43 PM, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote: > >> > On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 02:31:45PM -0500, Seth Jennings wrote: > >> >> ppc64 has a normal memory block size of 256M (however sometimes as low > >> >> as 16M depending on the system LMB size), and (I think) x86 is 128M. With > >> >> 1TB of RAM and a 256M block size, that's 4k memory blocks with 20 sysfs > >> >> entries per block that's around 80k items that need be created at boot > >> >> time in sysfs. Some systems go up to 16TB where the issue is even more > >> >> severe. > >> > > >> > The x86 developers are working with larger memory sizes and they haven't > >> > seen the problem in this area, for them it's in other places, as I > >> > referred to in my other email. > >> > >> The SGI guys don't run normal distro kernels and don't turn on memory > >> hotplug, so they don't see this. I do the same in my testing of > >> large-memory x86 systems to speed up my boots. I'll go stick it back in > >> there and see if I can generate some numbers for a 1TB machine. > >> > >> But, the problem on x86 is at _worst_ 1/8 of the problem on ppc64 since > >> the SECTION_SIZE is so 8x bigger by default. > >> > >> Also, the cost of creating sections on ppc is *MUCH* higher than x86 > >> when amortized across the number of pages that you're initializing. A > >> section on ppc64 has to be created for each (2^24/2^16)=256 pages while > >> one on x86 is created for each (2^27/2^12)=32768 pages. > >> > >> Thus, x86 folks with our small pages and large sections tend to be > >> focused on per-page costs. The ppc folks with their small sections and > >> larger pages tend to be focused on the per-section costs. > > > > Ah, thanks for the explaination, now it makes more sense why they are > > both optimizing in different places. > > I had one local patch that sent before, it will probe block size for > generic x86_64. > set it to 2G looks more reasonable for system with 1T+ ram. If I am understanding you correctly, you are suggesting we make the block size a boot time tunable. It can't be a runtime tunable since the memory blocks are currently created a boot time. On ppc64, we can't just just choose a memory block size since it must align with the underlying LMB (logical memory block) size, set in the hardware ahead of time. Seth -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/