Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2011 22:46:03 +0530
From: Vaidyanathan Srinivasan <svaidy@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
To: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Trinabh Gupta <trinabh@linux.vnet.ibm.com>, arjan@linux.intel.com,
        lenb@kernel.org, suresh.b.siddha@intel.com, benh@kernel.crashing.org,
        venki@google.com, ak@linux.intel.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH V3 2/3] cpuidle: list based cpuidle driver
 registration and selection
Message-ID: <20110210171603.GA6970@dirshya.in.ibm.com>
Reply-To: svaidy@linux.vnet.ibm.com
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 <20110208105203.9998.35678.stgit@tringupt.in.ibm.com>
 <1297250263.13327.159.camel@laptop>
 <20110210070031.GA5448@dirshya.in.ibm.com>
 <1297331610.5226.4.camel@laptop>
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* Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> [2011-02-10 10:53:30]:

> On Thu, 2011-02-10 at 12:30 +0530, Vaidyanathan Srinivasan wrote:
> 
> > We discussed this in the previous posts.  On ppc64 we would like to
> > have single global registration, but for x86 Arjan recommended that we
> > keep the per-cpu registration or else we may break legacy or buggy
> > devices.
> > 
> > Ref: http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/10/7/210
> > 
> > One corner case that was against using lowest common C-State is that
> > we could have cores/packages sporting a new lower C-State if they are
> > at a thermal limit and want the OS to go to much lower C-State and
> > sacrifice performance.  Our global design will prevent that cpu from
> > going to a state lower than the rest of the system.
> > 
> > This is only a remote possibility, but could happen on battery
> > operated devices, under low battery mode etc.  Basically we would have
> > to keep our design open to allow individual CPUs to goto 'their'
> > deepest allowed sleep state even in a asymmetric case.
> 
> 
> But but but, its a stupid ACPI bug if it reports different C states for
> different CPUs.
> 
> Len, does intel_idle also suffer this or does it simply ignore what ACPI
> has to say?
> 
> Also, suppose for some daft reason it doesn't report C2 as available on
> one of the CPUs, what happens if we use it anyway? (ie, use the union of
> the reported states).
 
Using a union of available C-States on all CPUs will take care of the
above mentioned (buggy) case and generally simplify the registration
mechanism.  This implies that a cpu is allowed to use any of the
registered ACPI C-States across the system.

--Vaidy
 
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