Re: [Fwd: Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] x86: add prefetching to do_csum]

From: Joe Perches
Date: Tue Nov 12 2013 - 12:33:36 EST


On Tue, 2013-11-12 at 12:12 -0500, Neil Horman wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 05:42:22PM -0800, Joe Perches wrote:
> > Hi again Neil.
> >
> > Forwarding on to netdev with a concern as to how often
> > do_csum is used via csum_partial for very short headers
> > and what impact any prefetch would have there.
> >
> > Also, what changed in your test environment?
> >
> > Why are the new values 5+% higher cycles/byte than the
> > previous values?
> >
> > And here is the new table reformatted:
> >
> > len set iterations Readahead cachelines vs cycles/byte
> > 1 2 3 4 6 10 20
> > 1500B 64MB 1000000 1.4342 1.4300 1.4350 1.4350 1.4396 1.4315 1.4555
> > 1500B 128MB 1000000 1.4312 1.4346 1.4271 1.4284 1.4376 1.4318 1.4431
> > 1500B 256MB 1000000 1.4309 1.4254 1.4316 1.4308 1.4418 1.4304 1.4367
> > 1500B 512MB 1000000 1.4534 1.4516 1.4523 1.4563 1.4554 1.4644 1.4590
> > 9000B 64MB 1000000 0.8921 0.8924 0.8932 0.8949 0.8952 0.8939 0.8985
> > 9000B 128MB 1000000 0.8841 0.8856 0.8845 0.8854 0.8861 0.8879 0.8861
> > 9000B 256MB 1000000 0.8806 0.8821 0.8813 0.8833 0.8814 0.8827 0.8895
> > 9000B 512MB 1000000 0.8838 0.8852 0.8841 0.8865 0.8846 0.8901 0.8865
> > 64KB 64MB 1000000 0.8132 0.8136 0.8132 0.8150 0.8147 0.8149 0.8147
> > 64KB 128MB 1000000 0.8013 0.8014 0.8013 0.8020 0.8041 0.8015 0.8033
> > 64KB 256MB 1000000 0.7956 0.7959 0.7956 0.7976 0.7981 0.7967 0.7973
> > 64KB 512MB 1000000 0.7934 0.7932 0.7937 0.7951 0.7954 0.7943 0.7948
> >
>
>
> There we go, thats better:
> len set iterations Readahead cachelines vs cycles/byte
> 1 2 3 4 5 10 20
> 1500B 64MB 1000000 1.3638 1.3288 1.3464 1.3505 1.3586 1.3527 1.3408
> 1500B 128MB 1000000 1.3394 1.3357 1.3625 1.3456 1.3536 1.3400 1.3410
> 1500B 256MB 1000000 1.3773 1.3362 1.3419 1.3548 1.3543 1.3442 1.4163
> 1500B 512MB 1000000 1.3442 1.3390 1.3434 1.3505 1.3767 1.3513 1.3820
> 9000B 64MB 1000000 0.8505 0.8492 0.8521 0.8593 0.8566 0.8577 0.8547
> 9000B 128MB 1000000 0.8507 0.8507 0.8523 0.8627 0.8593 0.8670 0.8570
> 9000B 256MB 1000000 0.8516 0.8515 0.8568 0.8546 0.8549 0.8609 0.8596
> 9000B 512MB 1000000 0.8517 0.8526 0.8552 0.8675 0.8547 0.8526 0.8621
> 64KB 64MB 1000000 0.7679 0.7689 0.7688 0.7716 0.7714 0.7722 0.7716
> 64KB 128MB 1000000 0.7683 0.7687 0.7710 0.7690 0.7717 0.7694 0.7703
> 64KB 256MB 1000000 0.7680 0.7703 0.7688 0.7689 0.7726 0.7717 0.7713
> 64KB 512MB 1000000 0.7692 0.7690 0.7701 0.7705 0.7698 0.7693 0.7735
>
>
> So, the numbers are correct now that I returned my hardware to its previous
> interrupt affinity state, but the trend seems to be the same (namely that there
> isn't a clear one). We seem to find peak performance around a readahead of 2
> cachelines, but its very small (about 3%), and its inconsistent (larger set
> sizes fall to either side of that stride). So I don't see it as a clear win. I
> still think we should probably scrap the readahead for now, just take the perf
> bits, and revisit this when we can use the vector instructions or the
> independent carry chain instructions to improve this more consistently.
>
> Thoughts

Perhaps a single prefetch, not of the first addr but of
the addr after PREFETCH_STRIDE would work best but only
if length is > PREFETCH_STRIDE.

I'd try:

if (len > PREFETCH_STRIDE)
prefetch(buf + PREFETCH_STRIDE);
while (count64) {
etc...
}

I still don't know how much that impacts very short lengths.

Can you please add a 20 byte length to your tests?

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