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linux/Documentation/cpu-freq/governors.txt

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CPU frequency and voltage scaling code in the Linux(TM) kernel
L i n u x C P U F r e q
C P U F r e q G o v e r n o r s
- information for users and developers -
Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
some additions and corrections by Nico Golde <nico@ngolde.de>
Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com>
Viresh Kumar <viresh.kumar@linaro.org>
Clock scaling allows you to change the clock speed of the CPUs on the
fly. This is a nice method to save battery power, because the lower
the clock speed, the less power the CPU consumes.
Contents:
---------
1. What is a CPUFreq Governor?
2. Governors In the Linux Kernel
2.1 Performance
2.2 Powersave
2.3 Userspace
2.4 Ondemand
2.5 Conservative
2.6 Schedutil
3. The Governor Interface in the CPUfreq Core
4. References
1. What Is A CPUFreq Governor?
==============================
Most cpufreq drivers (except the intel_pstate and longrun) or even most
cpu frequency scaling algorithms only allow the CPU frequency to be set
to predefined fixed values. In order to offer dynamic frequency
scaling, the cpufreq core must be able to tell these drivers of a
"target frequency". So these specific drivers will be transformed to
offer a "->target/target_index/fast_switch()" call instead of the
"->setpolicy()" call. For set_policy drivers, all stays the same,
though.
How to decide what frequency within the CPUfreq policy should be used?
That's done using "cpufreq governors".
Basically, it's the following flow graph:
CPU can be set to switch independently | CPU can only be set
within specific "limits" | to specific frequencies
"CPUfreq policy"
consists of frequency limits (policy->{min,max})
and CPUfreq governor to be used
/ \
/ \
/ the cpufreq governor decides
/ (dynamically or statically)
/ what target_freq to set within
/ the limits of policy->{min,max}
/ \
/ \
Using the ->setpolicy call, Using the ->target/target_index/fast_switch call,
the limits and the the frequency closest
"policy" is set. to target_freq is set.
It is assured that it
is within policy->{min,max}
2. Governors In the Linux Kernel
================================
2.1 Performance
---------------
The CPUfreq governor "performance" sets the CPU statically to the
highest frequency within the borders of scaling_min_freq and
scaling_max_freq.
2.2 Powersave
-------------
The CPUfreq governor "powersave" sets the CPU statically to the
lowest frequency within the borders of scaling_min_freq and
scaling_max_freq.
2.3 Userspace
-------------
The CPUfreq governor "userspace" allows the user, or any userspace
program running with UID "root", to set the CPU to a specific frequency
by making a sysfs file "scaling_setspeed" available in the CPU-device
directory.
2.4 Ondemand
------------
The CPUfreq governor "ondemand" sets the CPU frequency depending on the
current system load. Load estimation is triggered by the scheduler
through the update_util_data->func hook; when triggered, cpufreq checks
the CPU-usage statistics over the last period and the governor sets the
CPU accordingly. The CPU must have the capability to switch the
frequency very quickly.
Sysfs files:
* sampling_rate:
Measured in uS (10^-6 seconds), this is how often you want the kernel
to look at the CPU usage and to make decisions on what to do about the
frequency. Typically this is set to values of around '10000' or more.
It's default value is (cmp. with users-guide.txt): transition_latency
* 1000. Be aware that transition latency is in ns and sampling_rate
is in us, so you get the same sysfs value by default. Sampling rate
should always get adjusted considering the transition latency to set
the sampling rate 750 times as high as the transition latency in the
bash (as said, 1000 is default), do:
$ echo `$(($(cat cpuinfo_transition_latency) * 750 / 1000)) > ondemand/sampling_rate
* sampling_rate_min:
The sampling rate is limited by the HW transition latency:
transition_latency * 100
Or by kernel restrictions:
- If CONFIG_NO_HZ_COMMON is set, the limit is 10ms fixed.
- If CONFIG_NO_HZ_COMMON is not set or nohz=off boot parameter is
used, the limits depend on the CONFIG_HZ option:
HZ=1000: min=20000us (20ms)
HZ=250: min=80000us (80ms)
HZ=100: min=200000us (200ms)
The highest value of kernel and HW latency restrictions is shown and
used as the minimum sampling rate.
* up_threshold:
This defines what the average CPU usage between the samplings of
'sampling_rate' needs to be for the kernel to make a decision on
whether it should increase the frequency. For example when it is set
to its default value of '95' it means that between the checking
intervals the CPU needs to be on average more than 95% in use to then
decide that the CPU frequency needs to be increased.
* ignore_nice_load:
This parameter takes a value of '0' or '1'. When set to '0' (its
default), all processes are counted towards the 'cpu utilisation'
value. When set to '1', the processes that are run with a 'nice'
value will not count (and thus be ignored) in the overall usage
calculation. This is useful if you are running a CPU intensive
calculation on your laptop that you do not care how long it takes to
complete as you can 'nice' it and prevent it from taking part in the
deciding process of whether to increase your CPU frequency.
* sampling_down_factor:
This parameter controls the rate at which the kernel makes a decision
on when to decrease the frequency while running at top speed. When set
to 1 (the default) decisions to reevaluate load are made at the same
interval regardless of current clock speed. But when set to greater
than 1 (e.g. 100) it acts as a multiplier for the scheduling interval
for reevaluating load when the CPU is at its top speed due to high
load. This improves performance by reducing the overhead of load
evaluation and helping the CPU stay at its top speed when truly busy,
rather than shifting back and forth in speed. This tunable has no
effect on behavior at lower speeds/lower CPU loads.
* powersave_bias:
This parameter takes a value between 0 to 1000. It defines the
percentage (times 10) value of the target frequency that will be
shaved off of the target. For example, when set to 100 -- 10%, when
ondemand governor would have targeted 1000 MHz, it will target
1000 MHz - (10% of 1000 MHz) = 900 MHz instead. This is set to 0
(disabled) by default.
When AMD frequency sensitivity powersave bias driver --
drivers/cpufreq/amd_freq_sensitivity.c is loaded, this parameter
defines the workload frequency sensitivity threshold in which a lower
frequency is chosen instead of ondemand governor's original target.
The frequency sensitivity is a hardware reported (on AMD Family 16h
Processors and above) value between 0 to 100% that tells software how
the performance of the workload running on a CPU will change when
frequency changes. A workload with sensitivity of 0% (memory/IO-bound)
will not perform any better on higher core frequency, whereas a
workload with sensitivity of 100% (CPU-bound) will perform better
higher the frequency. When the driver is loaded, this is set to 400 by
default -- for CPUs running workloads with sensitivity value below
40%, a lower frequency is chosen. Unloading the driver or writing 0
will disable this feature.
2.5 Conservative
----------------
The CPUfreq governor "conservative", much like the "ondemand"
governor, sets the CPU frequency depending on the current usage. It
differs in behaviour in that it gracefully increases and decreases the
CPU speed rather than jumping to max speed the moment there is any load
on the CPU. This behaviour is more suitable in a battery powered
environment. The governor is tweaked in the same manner as the
"ondemand" governor through sysfs with the addition of:
* freq_step:
This describes what percentage steps the cpu freq should be increased
and decreased smoothly by. By default the cpu frequency will increase
in 5% chunks of your maximum cpu frequency. You can change this value
to anywhere between 0 and 100 where '0' will effectively lock your CPU
at a speed regardless of its load whilst '100' will, in theory, make
it behave identically to the "ondemand" governor.
* down_threshold:
Same as the 'up_threshold' found for the "ondemand" governor but for
the opposite direction. For example when set to its default value of
'20' it means that if the CPU usage needs to be below 20% between
samples to have the frequency decreased.
* sampling_down_factor:
Similar functionality as in "ondemand" governor. But in
"conservative", it controls the rate at which the kernel makes a
decision on when to decrease the frequency while running in any speed.
Load for frequency increase is still evaluated every sampling rate.
2.6 Schedutil
-------------
The "schedutil" governor aims at better integration with the Linux
kernel scheduler. Load estimation is achieved through the scheduler's
Per-Entity Load Tracking (PELT) mechanism, which also provides
information about the recent load [1]. This governor currently does
load based DVFS only for tasks managed by CFS. RT and DL scheduler tasks
are always run at the highest frequency. Unlike all the other
governors, the code is located under the kernel/sched/ directory.
Sysfs files:
* rate_limit_us:
This contains a value in microseconds. The governor waits for
rate_limit_us time before reevaluating the load again, after it has
evaluated the load once.
For an in-depth comparison with the other governors refer to [2].
3. The Governor Interface in the CPUfreq Core
=============================================
A new governor must register itself with the CPUfreq core using
"cpufreq_register_governor". The struct cpufreq_governor, which has to
be passed to that function, must contain the following values:
governor->name - A unique name for this governor.
governor->owner - .THIS_MODULE for the governor module (if appropriate).
plus a set of hooks to the functions implementing the governor's logic.
The CPUfreq governor may call the CPU processor driver using one of
these two functions:
int cpufreq_driver_target(struct cpufreq_policy *policy,
unsigned int target_freq,
unsigned int relation);
int __cpufreq_driver_target(struct cpufreq_policy *policy,
unsigned int target_freq,
unsigned int relation);
target_freq must be within policy->min and policy->max, of course.
What's the difference between these two functions? When your governor is
in a direct code path of a call to governor callbacks, like
governor->start(), the policy->rwsem is still held in the cpufreq core,
and there's no need to lock it again (in fact, this would cause a
deadlock). So use __cpufreq_driver_target only in these cases. In all
other cases (for example, when there's a "daemonized" function that
wakes up every second), use cpufreq_driver_target to take policy->rwsem
before the command is passed to the cpufreq driver.
4. References
=============
[1] Per-entity load tracking: https://lwn.net/Articles/531853/
[2] Improvements in CPU frequency management: https://lwn.net/Articles/682391/
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