Re: Scheduler regression: Too frequent timer interrupts(?)

From: Chris Friesen
Date: Fri Apr 17 2009 - 19:24:30 EST


Christoph Lameter wrote:

The latencytest code simulates a busy processor (no system calls, all
memory is prefaulted). For some reasons Linux is increasingly taking time
away from such processes (that intentionally run uncontended on a
dedicated processor). This causes regressions so that current upstream is
not usable for these applications.

It would be best for these applications if the processor would be left
undisturbed. There is likely not much that the OS needs to do on a busy
processor if there are no competing threads and if there is no I/O taking
place.

Peter/Ingo, could ftrace be used to determine where time is being spent in the kernel with suitable accuracy? (This may be a dumb question, I haven't played with ftrace much.)

Given that we're talking about tens of usecs of duration, statistical sampling may not work all that well.

Chris
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