Re b.L MP. The wording "Recommended to be used for testing" is not clear. If I understand correctly, the reference big.LITTLE MP patchset includes ARM's beta patchset at 13.0.4 and as far as ARM is concerned this is product ready. I would like to see it re-worded "Recommended for vendor testing and implementation on end-product".
Dr. Berny Goodheart Director of Kernel Research Group 2012 Labs Central Software Institute Finland R&D Center
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-----Original Message----- From: Serge Broslavsky [mailto:serge.broslavsky@linaro.org] Sent: 23 June 2013 21:58 To: linaro-dev Cc: Scott Bambrough; Bernard Goodheart; Serge Broslavsky; Tech Leads; David Rusling; George Grey; Alexander Sack; Joe Bates; Mark Orvek; Kate Stewart; David Zinman Subject: big.LITTLE MP status June 18, 2013
https://wiki.linaro.org/projects/big.LITTLE.MP
Work Items for functional completion: https://wiki.linaro.org/projects/big.LITTLE.MP/WorkItems
Main Project page: https://launchpad.net/linaro-big-little-system
Development ============
1. big.LITTLE IKS
IKS snapshot: git://git.linaro.org/landing-teams/working/arm/kernel.git
More information: http://lists.linaro.org/pipermail/linaro-dev/2013-May/015882.html
Also the latest Linaro 13.05 release contains big.LITTLE release with IKS code integrated. By default MP is used (IKS is off). To enable IKS:
echo 1 > /sys/kernel/bL_switcher/active
Same is planned for Linaro 12.06 release.
2. big.LITTLE MP
There are two branches, which are functionally equivalent - they tweak the scheduler to select the right processes to move to the A15 and try to decrease power consumption while maintaining performance.
* A Reference big.LITTLE MP patchset (based on ARM Beta patchset), merged with linux-linaro:
https://git.linaro.org/gitweb?p=arm/big.LITTLE/mp.git%3Ba=shortlog%3Bh=refs/...
Recommended to be used for testing.
* And an upstream (work in progress) big.LITTLE MP patchset:
https://git.linaro.org/gitweb?p=arm/big.LITTLE/mp.git%3Ba=shortlog%3Bh=refs/...
Being worked on in order to achieve the performance/power numbers of the reference one. Upstream discussion is ongoing.
* Documentation:
Code flow is already covered by several LWN articles. See https://wiki.linaro.org/WorkingGroups/PowerManagement/Doc/ in the Articles section. We will provide a tuning guide once we have reached agreement upstream.
* Automated benchmarking code is ready:
- Golden Board is to be used for running daily tests. - Both branches - reference and upstream to be tested in the future.
Blueprint Updates ------------------
* https://blueprints.launchpad.net/linaro-big-little-system/+spec/big-little-m...
Ongoing work.
* https://blueprints.launchpad.net/linaro-big-little-system/+spec/small-task-p...
- Big variation previously seen is not visible on the Golden Board. It might be caused by an USB stick with insufficiently high speed - working on this hypothesis.
- Latest patchset (not yet published upstream) shows low delta with the reference patch set results.
* https://blueprints.launchpad.net/linaro-big-little-system/+spec/sched-cooper...
- Postponed. Priorities are to be re-evaluated.
QA ==
big.LITTLE MP LAVA Dashboard http://validation.linaro.org/lava-server/dashboard/image-reports/linaro-andr...
Testing (week 25):
sched_tests.git #Cases #Run Pass Fail Absolute pass rate Regression 20 19 19 0 100 % mpbasicsuite 14 10 10 0 100 % mpcoresuite 10 6 6 0 84 % [1][2] mpextendedsuite 20 10 7 3 70 % [3] mploadbalance 2 2 2 0 100 %
--- [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/linaro-big-little-system/+bug/1188655 [2] core_test_scn02.1 reported failed in full execution and passed independently: https://pastebin.linaro.org/view/21cf80f3 [3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/linaro-big-little-system/+bug/1183769
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/linaro-big-little-system/+bugs?field.tag=bl-mp
Highlight: Bug 1166246 - Lockup on post 3.9 IKS kernel
- can be hardware or software bug, investigation continues. - seems to be related to MMC being in use (switching to USB stick can be used as a reliable workaround).
Highlight: Bug 1183821 - perf failed to count events on A15 cluster
- existing perf code is at the end of it's lifecycle. - a rewrite is ongoing. - will stay unfixed for Linaro 13.6 release.
-- Best Regards, Serge Broslavsky serge.broslavsky@linaro.org
Project Manager, Linaro M: +37129426328 IRC: ototo Skype: serge.broslavsky http://linaro.org | Open source software for ARM SoCs