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The logic in blk_mq_complete_need_ipi() assumes SMP systems where all CPUs have equal compute capacities and only LLC cache can make a different on perceived performance. But this assumption falls apart on HMP systems where LLC is shared, but the CPUs have different capacities. Staying local then can have a big performance impact if the IO request was done from a CPU with higher capacity but the interrupt is serviced on a lower capacity CPU. Use the new cpus_equal_capacity() function to check if we need to send an IPI. Without the patch I see the BLOCK softirq always running on little cores (where the hardirq is serviced). With it I can see it running on all cores. This was noticed after the topology change [1] where now on a big.LITTLE we truly get that the LLC is shared between all cores where as in the past it was being misrepresented for historical reasons. The logic exposed a missing dependency on capacities for such systems where there can be a big performance difference between the CPUs. This of course introduced a noticeable change in behavior depending on how the topology is presented. Leading to regressions in some workloads as the performance of the BLOCK softirq on littles can be noticeably worse on some platforms. Worth noting that we could have checked for capacities being greater than or equal instead for equality. This will lead to favouring higher performance always. But opted for equality instead to match the performance of the requester without making an assumption that can lead to power trade-offs which these systems tend to be sensitive about. If the requester would like to run faster, it's better to rely on the scheduler to give the IO requester via some facility to run on a faster core; and then if the interrupt triggered on a CPU with different capacity we'll make sure to match the performance the requester is supposed to run at. [1] https://lpc.events/event/16/contributions/1342/attachments/962/1883/LPC-2022-Android-MC-Phantom-Domains.pdf Signed-off-by: Qais Yousef <qyousef@layalina.io> Reviewed-by: Bart Van Assche <bvanassche@acm.org> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240223155749.2958009-3-qyousef@layalina.io Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>
Linux kernel
============
There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.
In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``. The formatted documentation can also be read online at:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/
There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation.
Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.