Re: [PATCH] clk: allow to skip clk_core_req_round_rate_nolock()

From: Jan Dakinevich
Date: Fri Feb 23 2024 - 16:49:17 EST




On 2/23/24 02:20, Stephen Boyd wrote:
Quoting Jan Dakinevich (2024-01-26 12:14:33)
Calling of clk_core_req_round_rate_nolock() can be time-consuming in a
case of deep hierarchy with multiple dividers/parents. But if the clock
already has exactly the same rate as desired, there is no need to
determine how it could be rounded.

What exactly are you trying to avoid? Is this an optimization or a bug
fix? TL;DR: I'm unlikely to apply this patch.


It is an optimization, not a bug. The problem is that clk_core_req_round_rate_nolock() is quite expensive, and I faced with cases, where it takes tens and hundreds milliseconds (depending on SoC).

As I see, it is irremovable feature of clk_core_req_round_rate_nolock() design itself. Lets imagine, we have some clock, and its parent is a divider. When clk_core_req_round_rate_nolock() is being called the execution is walked through the following path:

clk_core_determine_round_nolock
core->ops->determine_rate
divider_determine_rate
clk_divider_bestdiv

Inside clk_divider_bestdiv() for each possible divider clk_hw_round_rate() is called for parent of the clock, which in turn calls clk_core_determine_round_nolock().

So, each divider and multiplexer in clock path multiplies many times an amount of iteration required to execute clk_core_req_round_rate_nolock(). When there are a lot of them the time consumed by clk_core_req_round_rate_nolock() becomes sufficient.

I could see some driver implementing round_rate()/determine_rate() in a
way that rounds the rate passed in, so that even if the rate is what the
clk is running at _right now_, it still wants to change it to something
else, or at least call down into the driver to call the set_rate clk_op.
Applying this patch will break that. The contract is that
clk_set_rate(rate) == clk_set_rate(clk_round_rate(rate)). It doesn't
look like anything needs to change.

If I am not mistaken, clocks's rate is either equal to its parent rate or calculated by ->recalc_rate(). I suppose, this callback should return valid rate value that is based on current clock parameters.

Now, suppose the clock has rate "rateA" and we called clk_set_rate() to set "rateA", but clk_core_req_round_rate_nolock() inside clk_set_rate() rounds it to "rateB". Thus, although the clock is able to run on desired rate (and actually run on it), ->determine_rate() and ->round_rate() are unable to choose clocks's parameters for that value. Is it correct behavior for clock driver?



--
Best regards
Jan Dakinevich