[patch 0/2] sLeAZY FPU feature

[Arjan van de Ven]

Hi,

the two patches in this series (the x86-64 on by me, the i386 one by
Chuck Ebbert) change how the lazy fpu feature works. In the current
situation, we are 100% lazy, meaning that after every context switch,
the application takes a trap on the first FPU use, which then restores
the FPU context.

The sLeAZY FPU patch changes this behavior; if a process has used the
FPU for 5 stints at a row, the behavior becomes proactive and the FPU
context is restored during the regular context switch already. This
means we can avoid the trap.

The underlying assumption is that if a process uses 5 times consecutive,
it's likely to do it the 6th and later times as well (eg it's not a
one-off behavior).

There is a limit built in; this proactive behavior resets after 255
times, so that when a process is long lived and chances behavior, it'll
still get the right behavior (for performance) after some time.

Chuck measured a +/- 0.4% performance gain, and my experiments show a
similar improvement.

Greetings,
   Arjan van de Ven

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/