SPARSEMEM is a pretty nice framework that unifies quite a bit of code over all
the arches. It would be great if it could be the default so that we can get
rid of various forms of DISCONTIG and other variations on memory maps. So far
what has hindered this are the additional lookups that SPARSEMEM introduces
for virt_to_page and page_address. This goes so far that the code to do this
has to be kept in a separate function and cannot be used inline.
This patch introduces a virtual memmap mode for SPARSEMEM, in which the memmap
is mapped into a virtually contigious area, only the active sections are
physically backed. This allows virt_to_page page_address and cohorts become
simple shift/add operations. No page flag fields, no table lookups, nothing
involving memory is required.
The two key operations pfn_to_page and page_to_page become:
By having a virtual mapping for the memmap we allow simple access without
wasting physical memory. As kernel memory is typically already mapped 1:1
this introduces no additional overhead. The virtual mapping must be big
enough to allow a struct page to be allocated and mapped for all valid
physical pages. This vill make a virtual memmap difficult to use on 32 bit
platforms that support 36 address bits.
However, if there is enough virtual space available and the arch already maps
its 1-1 kernel space using TLBs (f.e. true of IA64 and x86_64) then this
technique makes SPARSEMEM lookups even more efficient than CONFIG_FLATMEM.
FLATMEM needs to read the contents of the mem_map variable to get the start of
the memmap and then add the offset to the required entry. vmemmap is a
constant to which we can simply add the offset.
This patch has the potential to allow us to make SPARSMEM the default (and
even the only) option for most systems. It should be optimal on UP, SMP and
NUMA on most platforms. Then we may even be able to remove the other memory
models: FLATMEM, DISCONTIG etc.
The current aim is to bring a common virtually mapped mem_map to all
architectures. This should facilitate the removal of the bespoke
implementations from the architectures. This also brings performance
improvements for most architecture making sparsmem vmemmap the more desirable
memory model. The ultimate aim of this work is to expand sparsemem support to
encompass all the features of the other memory models. This could allow us to
drop support for and remove the other models in the longer term.
Below are some comparitive kernbench numbers for various architectures,
comparing default memory model against SPARSEMEM VMEMMAP. All but ia64 show
marginal improvement; we expect the ia64 figures to be sorted out when the
larger mapping support returns.
x86-64 non-NUMA
Base VMEMAP % change (-ve good)
User 85.07 84.84 -0.26
System 34.32 33.84 -1.39
Total 119.38 118.68 -0.59
ia64
Base VMEMAP % change (-ve good)
User 1016.41 1016.93 0.05
System 50.83 51.02 0.36
Total 1067.25 1067.95 0.07
x86-64 NUMA
Base VMEMAP % change (-ve good)
User 30.77 431.73 0.22
System 45.39 43.98 -3.11
Total 476.17 475.71 -0.10
ppc64
Base VMEMAP % change (-ve good)
User 488.77 488.35 -0.09
System 56.92 56.37 -0.97
Total 545.69 544.72 -0.18
Below are some AIM bencharks on IA64 and x86-64 (thank Bob). The seems
pretty much flat as you would expect.
ia64 results 2 cpu non-numa 4Gb SCSI disk
Benchmark Version Machine Run Date
AIM Multiuser Benchmark - Suite VII "1.1" extreme Jun 1 07:17:24 2007
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