Re: [PATCH] ACPI: processor_idle: Skip dummy wait for processors based on the Zen microarchitecture

From: Peter Zijlstra
Date: Thu Sep 22 2022 - 04:18:06 EST


On Wed, Sep 21, 2022 at 09:48:13PM +0200, Borislav Petkov wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 21, 2022 at 05:00:35PM +0200, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 21, 2022 at 12:06:38PM +0530, K Prateek Nayak wrote:
> > > Processors based on the Zen microarchitecture support IOPORT based deeper
> > > C-states.
> >
> > I've just gotta ask; why the heck are you using IO port based idle
> > states in 2022 ?!?! You have have MWAIT, right?
>
> They have both. And both is Intel technology. And as I'm sure you
> know AMD can't do their own thing - they kinda have to follow Intel.
> Unfortunately.
>
> Are you saying modern Intel chipsets don't do IO-based C-states anymore?

I've no idea what they do, but Linux exclusively uses MWAIT on Intel as
per intel_idle.c.

MWAIT also cuts down on IPIs because it wakes from the TIF write.