WARNING - OLD ARCHIVES

This is an archived copy of the Xen.org mailing list, which we have preserved to ensure that existing links to archives are not broken. The live archive, which contains the latest emails, can be found at http://lists.xen.org/
   
 
 
Xen 
 
Home Products Support Community News
 
   
 

xen-devel

Re: [Xen-devel] Question on hyperthreading and Westmere processors.

To: Roger Cruz <rcruz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] Question on hyperthreading and Westmere processors.
From: Keir Fraser <keir.fraser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:37:55 +0000
Cc:
Delivery-date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:38:20 -0800
Envelope-to: www-data@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <40B551BEDC7945419A5897958AB3947C01CD6743@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
List-help: <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=help>
List-id: Xen developer discussion <xen-devel.lists.xensource.com>
List-post: <mailto:xen-devel@lists.xensource.com>
List-subscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel>, <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=subscribe>
List-unsubscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel>, <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=unsubscribe>
Sender: xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thread-index: Acqd1DuJgt8GjRzgQjm8DeiM9czXkgFfbwuwAACjgnw=
Thread-topic: [Xen-devel] Question on hyperthreading and Westmere processors.
User-agent: Microsoft-Entourage/12.23.0.091001
New Intel processors should all have constant-rate TSCs, regardless of P-
and C-states, and regardless of things like turbo boosts.

The credit scheduler likes to schedule across cores where possible, before
making use of the second hyperthread of a pair.

 -- Keir

On 01/02/2010 15:20, "Roger Cruz" <rcruz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi folks,
>  
> I was wondering if someone would be kind enough to look over my questions and
> provide an answer or some ³gut² feeling on whether any issues may arise on
> Westmere processors.  I don¹t have one to try XenServer on myself so I¹m
> looking for others who can help.
>  
> Thanks
> Roger
>  
> 
> 
> From: xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Cruz
> Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 10:37 AM
> To: xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [Xen-devel] Question on hyperthreading and Westmere processors.
>  
>  
> Hi folks,
>  
> I¹m wondering if one of you could answer a couple of questions with regards to
> the new Intel processors and VM scheduling when hyperthreads are involved.
>  
> 1)       For Nahelem/Westmere processors, Intel has a feature where it can
> turbo the processor¹s frequency.  In an SMP environment, would this turbo
> boost affect Xen in any ways?  For example, does the TSC offset computation
> between processor¹s becomes invalid?  Are there any other features or reasons
> why a Westmere processor would cause a problem for Xen?
>  
> 2)       These new processors have hyper threading enabled.   Is Xen¹s
> scheduling algorithm cognizant of threads so that it can most effectively
> schedule VMs on idle cores rather than use an idle thread on a busy core?
> 
>  
> 
> Let me explain that better. For example, on 1 quad-core HT-enabled processor
> server,  there are a total of 8 working units (4 cores + 4 threads).   Assume
> we labelt them this way: [core#,thread#]: [0,0], [0,1], [1,0], [1,1], [2,0],
> [2,1], [3,0], [3,1].  If there are 3 VMs exist, does the scheduler arrange the
> VMs such that VM1 is on [0,0], VM2 is on [1,0], and VM3 on [2,0]?  Or does it
> tread all the work units without regards to their locations and schedule them
> as [0,0], [0,1] and [1,0], for example?  In the latter case, two VMs are
> schedule on the same core, which would be less effective than scheduled on the
> idle core.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks
> Roger
> 



_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>