Re: [PATCH V1 5/6] Documentation: amd-pstate: introduce AMD Pstate Preferred Core

From: Mario Limonciello
Date: Tue Aug 08 2023 - 11:48:18 EST


On 8/8/2023 03:10, Meng Li wrote:
Introduce AMD Pstate Preferred Core.

check preferred core state:
$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/amd-pstate/prefcore_state

Signed-off-by: Meng Li <li.meng@xxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/admin-guide/pm/amd-pstate.rst | 55 +++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 55 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/amd-pstate.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/amd-pstate.rst
index 1cf40f69278c..4a30cf235425 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/amd-pstate.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/amd-pstate.rst
@@ -353,6 +353,49 @@ is activated. In this mode, driver requests minimum and maximum performance
level and the platform autonomously selects a performance level in this range
and appropriate to the current workload.
+AMD Pstate Preferred Core
+=================================
+
+The core frequency is subjected to the process variation in semiconductors.
+Not all cores are able to reach the maximum frequency respecting the
+infrastructure limits. Consequently, AMD has redefined the concept of
+maximum frequency of a part. This means that a fraction of cores can reach
+maximum frequency. To find the best process scheduling policy for a given
+scenario, OS needs to know the core ordering informed by the platform through
+highest performance capability register of the CPPC interface.
+
+``AMD Pstate Preferred Core`` use ITMT arch provides functions and data structures
+for enabling the scheduler to favor scheduling on cores can be get a higher frequency
+with lower voltage under preferred core.

This sentence was useful for the commit message, but I don't think it should be in the user facing documentation.

And it has the ability to dynamically
+change the preferred core based on the workload and platform conditions and
+accounting for thermals and aging.
+
+The priority metric will be initialized by the AMD Pstate driver. The AMD Pstate
+driver will also determine whether or not ``AMD Pstate Preferred Core`` is
+supported by the platform.
+
+AMD Pstate driver will provide an initial core ordering when the system boots.
+The platform uses the CPPC interfaces to communicate the core ranking to the
+operating system and scheduler to make sure that OS is choosing the cores
+with highest performance firstly for scheduling the process. When AMD Pstate
+driver receives a message with the highest performance change, it will
+update the core ranking and set the cpu's priority.
+
+AMD Preferred Core Switch
+=================================
+Kernel Parameters
+-----------------
+
+``AMD Pstate Preferred Core`` has two states: enable and disable.
+Enable/disable states can be chosen by different kernel parameters.
+Default disable ``AMD Pstate Preferred Core``.

Why default disable?

+
+``amd_prefcore=enable``
+
+If ``amd_prefcore=enable`` is passed to kernel command line option
+then enable ``AMD Pstate Preferred Core`` if the processor and power
+firmware can support preferred core feature.

This can be simplified as "platform can support the preferred core feature".

+
User Space Interface in ``sysfs`` - General
===========================================
@@ -385,6 +428,18 @@ control its functionality at the system level. They are located in the
to the operation mode represented by that string - or to be
unregistered in the "disable" case.
+``prefcore_state``
+ Preferred Core state of the driver: "enabled" or "disabled".
+
+ "enabled"
+ Enable the AMD Preferred Core.
+
+ "disabled"
+ Disable the AMD Preferred Core
+
+
+ This attribute is read-only to check the state of Preferred Core.

As the attribute is read only and won't change at runtime, I don't think it makes sense to include the word "state" in the sysfs file name.

You can just rename it to "prefcore".

+
``cpupower`` tool support for ``amd-pstate``
===============================================