Re: [PATCH 2/3] x86: entry_64.S: use PUSH insns to build pt_regs on stack

[Andy Lutomirski]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 2:32 PM, Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 03/18/2015 10:22 PM, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
>> On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 2:12 PM, Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> On 03/18/2015 10:01 PM, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
>>>> On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 12:47 PM, Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>> We lose a number of large insns there:
>>>>>
>>>>>     text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
>>>>>     9863       0       0    9863    2687 entry_64_before.o
>>>>>     9671       0       0    9671    25c7 entry_64.o
>>>>>
>>>>> What's more important, we convert two "MOVQ $imm,off(%rsp)" to "PUSH $imm"
>>>>> (the ones which fill pt_regs->cs,ss).
>>>>>
>>>>> Before this patch, placing them on fast path was slowing it down by two cycles:
>>>>> this form of MOV is very large, 12 bytes, and this probably reduces decode bandwidth
>>>>> to one insn per cycle when it meets them.
>>>>> Therefore they were living in FIXUP_TOP_OF_STACK instead (away from hot path).
>>>>
>>>> Does that mean that this has zero performance impact, or is it
>>>> actually a speedup?
>>>
>>>
>>> No, it's not a speedup because those big bad instructions weren't
>>> on hot path to begin with.
>>>
>>> We want them to be there.
>>>
>>> Inserting them in a form of MOVs into hot path (say, in order
>>> to eliminate FIXUP_TOP_OF_STACK) *would be* a slowdown.
>>>
>>> But we switch to PUSH method, and then inserting them _as PUSHes_
>>> seems to be a wash.
>>>
>>
>> Sorry, what I meant was: what was the performance impact of this patch
>> on fast-path syscalls?
>
> I measured the next patch (which added one additional push)
> and it was a wash compared to timings before both patches.
> See comment there.

Oh, I misunderstood and assumed that the comment there was about that
patch in isolation.

--Andy
--
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/