[PATCH v2 0/7] feec() energy margin removal

From: Vincent Donnefort
Date: Wed Jan 12 2022 - 11:15:24 EST


find_energy_efficient() (feec()) will migrate a task to save energy only
if it saves at least 6% of the total energy consumed by the system. This
conservative approach is a problem on a system where a lot of small tasks
create a huge load on the overall: very few of them will be allowed to migrate
to a smaller CPU, wasting a lot of energy. Instead of trying to determine yet
another margin, let's try to remove it.

The first elements of this patch-set are various fixes and improvement that
stabilizes task_util and ensures energy comparison fairness across all CPUs of
the topology. Only once those fixed, we can completely remove the margin and
let feec() aggressively place task and save energy.

This has been validated by two different ways:

First using LISA's eas_behaviour test suite. This is composed of a set of
scenario and verify if the task placement is optimum. No failure have been
observed and it also improved some tests such as Ramp-Down (as the placement
is now more energy oriented) and *ThreeSmall (as no bouncing between clusters
happen anymore).

* Hikey960: 100% PASSED
* DB-845C: 100% PASSED
* RB5: 100% PASSED

Second, using an Android benchmark: PCMark2 on a Pixel4, with a lot of
backports to have a scheduler as close as we can from mainline.

+------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| Test | Perf | Energy [1] |
+------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| Web2 | -0.3% pval 0.03 | -1.8% pval 0.00 |
| Video2 | -0.3% pval 0.13 | -5.6% pval 0.00 |
| Photo2 [2] | -3.8% pval 0.00 | -1% pval 0.00 |
| Writing2 | 0% pval 0.13 | -1% pval 0.00 |
| Data2 | 0% pval 0.8 | -0.43 pval 0.00 |
+------------+-----------------+-----------------+

The margin removal let the kernel make the best use of the Energy Model,
tasks are more likely to be placed where they fit and this saves a
substantial amount of energy, while having a limited impact on performances.

[1] This is an energy estimation based on the CPU activity and the Energy Model
for this device. "All models are wrong but some are useful"; yes, this is an
imperfect estimation that doesn't take into account some idle states and shared
power rails. Nonetheless this is based on the information the kernel has during
runtime and it proves the scheduler can take better decisions based solely on
those data.

[2] This is the only performance impact observed. The debugging of this test
showed no issue with task placement. The better score was solely due to some

v1 -> v2:
- Fix PELT migration last_update_time (previously root cfs_rq's).
- Add Dietmar's patches to refactor feec()'s CPU loop.
- feec(): renaming busy time functions get_{pd,tsk}_busy_time()
- feec(): pd_cap computation in the first for_each_cpu loop.
- feec(): create get_pd_max_util() function (previously within compute_energy())
- feec(): rename base_energy_pd to base_energy.

Dietmar Eggemann (3):
sched, drivers: Remove max param from effective_cpu_util()/sched_cpu_util()
sched/fair: Rename select_idle_mask to select_rq_mask
sched/fair: Use the same cpumask per-PD throughout find_energy_efficient_cpu()

Vincent Donnefort (4):
sched/fair: Provide u64 read for 32-bits arch helper
sched/fair: Decay task PELT values during migration
sched/fair: Remove task_util from effective utilization in feec()
sched/fair: Remove the energy margin in feec()

drivers/powercap/dtpm_cpu.c | 33 +---
drivers/thermal/cpufreq_cooling.c | 6 +-
include/linux/sched.h | 2 +-
kernel/sched/core.c | 22 ++-
kernel/sched/cpufreq_schedutil.c | 5 +-
kernel/sched/fair.c | 313 ++++++++++++++++--------------
kernel/sched/sched.h | 48 ++++-
7 files changed, 238 insertions(+), 191 deletions(-)

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2.25.1