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cpufreq: User/admin documentation update and consolidation

Browse Source 
The user/admin documentation of cpufreq is badly outdated.  It
conains stale and/or inaccurate information along with things
that are not particularly useful.  Also, some of the important
pieces are missing from it.

For this reason, add a new user/admin document for cpufreq
containing current information to admin-guide and drop the old
outdated .txt documents it is replacing.

Since there will be more PM documents in admin-guide going forward,
create a separate directory for them and put the cpufreq document
in there right away.

Signed-off-by: Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com>
Acked-by: Viresh Kumar <viresh.kumar@linaro.org>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
This commit is contained in:
Rafael J. Wysocki 2017-03-13 23:59:57 +01:00 committed by Jonathan Corbet
parent 8fa1bb506f
commit 2a0e492798
7 changed files with 716 additions and 629 deletions
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Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst
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@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ configure specific aspects of kernel behavior to your liking.
mono
java
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pm/index
.. only:: subproject and html

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.. |struct cpufreq_policy| replace:: :c:type:`struct cpufreq_policy <cpufreq_policy>`
=======================
CPU Performance Scaling
=======================
::
Copyright (c) 2017 Intel Corp., Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com>
The Concept of CPU Performance Scaling
======================================
The majority of modern processors are capable of operating in a number of
different clock frequency and voltage configurations, often referred to as
Operating Performance Points or P-states (in ACPI terminology). As a rule,
the higher the clock frequency and the higher the voltage, the more instructions
can be retired by the CPU over a unit of time, but also the higher the clock
frequency and the higher the voltage, the more energy is consumed over a unit of
time (or the more power is drawn) by the CPU in the given P-state. Therefore
there is a natural tradeoff between the CPU capacity (the number of instructions
that can be executed over a unit of time) and the power drawn by the CPU.
In some situations it is desirable or even necessary to run the program as fast
as possible and then there is no reason to use any P-states different from the
highest one (i.e. the highest-performance frequency/voltage configuration
available). In some other cases, however, it may not be necessary to execute
instructions so quickly and maintaining the highest available CPU capacity for a
relatively long time without utilizing it entirely may be regarded as wasteful.
It also may not be physically possible to maintain maximum CPU capacity for too
long for thermal or power supply capacity reasons or similar. To cover those
cases, there are hardware interfaces allowing CPUs to be switched between
different frequency/voltage configurations or (in the ACPI terminology) to be
put into different P-states.
Typically, they are used along with algorithms to estimate the required CPU
capacity, so as to decide which P-states to put the CPUs into. Of course, since
the utilization of the system generally changes over time, that has to be done
repeatedly on a regular basis. The activity by which this happens is referred
to as CPU performance scaling or CPU frequency scaling (because it involves
adjusting the CPU clock frequency).
CPU Performance Scaling in Linux
================================
The Linux kernel supports CPU performance scaling by means of the ``CPUFreq``
(CPU Frequency scaling) subsystem that consists of three layers of code: the
core, scaling governors and scaling drivers.
The ``CPUFreq`` core provides the common code infrastructure and user space
interfaces for all platforms that support CPU performance scaling. It defines
the basic framework in which the other components operate.
Scaling governors implement algorithms to estimate the required CPU capacity.
As a rule, each governor implements one, possibly parametrized, scaling
algorithm.
Scaling drivers talk to the hardware. They provide scaling governors with
information on the available P-states (or P-state ranges in some cases) and
access platform-specific hardware interfaces to change CPU P-states as requested
by scaling governors.
In principle, all available scaling governors can be used with every scaling
driver. That design is based on the observation that the information used by
performance scaling algorithms for P-state selection can be represented in a
platform-independent form in the majority of cases, so it should be possible
to use the same performance scaling algorithm implemented in exactly the same
way regardless of which scaling driver is used. Consequently, the same set of
scaling governors should be suitable for every supported platform.
However, that observation may not hold for performance scaling algorithms
based on information provided by the hardware itself, for example through
feedback registers, as that information is typically specific to the hardware
interface it comes from and may not be easily represented in an abstract,
platform-independent way. For this reason, ``CPUFreq`` allows scaling drivers
to bypass the governor layer and implement their own performance scaling
algorithms. That is done by the ``intel_pstate`` scaling driver.
``CPUFreq`` Policy Objects
==========================
In some cases the hardware interface for P-state control is shared by multiple
CPUs. That is, for example, the same register (or set of registers) is used to
control the P-state of multiple CPUs at the same time and writing to it affects
all of those CPUs simultaneously.
Sets of CPUs sharing hardware P-state control interfaces are represented by
``CPUFreq`` as |struct cpufreq_policy| objects. For consistency,
|struct cpufreq_policy| is also used when there is only one CPU in the given
set.
The ``CPUFreq`` core maintains a pointer to a |struct cpufreq_policy| object for
every CPU in the system, including CPUs that are currently offline. If multiple
CPUs share the same hardware P-state control interface, all of the pointers
corresponding to them point to the same |struct cpufreq_policy| object.
``CPUFreq`` uses |struct cpufreq_policy| as its basic data type and the design
of its user space interface is based on the policy concept.
CPU Initialization
==================
First of all, a scaling driver has to be registered for ``CPUFreq`` to work.
It is only possible to register one scaling driver at a time, so the scaling
driver is expected to be able to handle all CPUs in the system.
The scaling driver may be registered before or after CPU registration. If
CPUs are registered earlier, the driver core invokes the ``CPUFreq`` core to
take a note of all of the already registered CPUs during the registration of the
scaling driver. In turn, if any CPUs are registered after the registration of
the scaling driver, the ``CPUFreq`` core will be invoked to take note of them
at their registration time.
In any case, the ``CPUFreq`` core is invoked to take note of any logical CPU it
has not seen so far as soon as it is ready to handle that CPU. [Note that the
logical CPU may be a physical single-core processor, or a single core in a
multicore processor, or a hardware thread in a physical processor or processor
core. In what follows "CPU" always means "logical CPU" unless explicitly stated
otherwise and the word "processor" is used to refer to the physical part
possibly including multiple logical CPUs.]
Once invoked, the ``CPUFreq`` core checks if the policy pointer is already set
for the given CPU and if so, it skips the policy object creation. Otherwise,
a new policy object is created and initialized, which involves the creation of
a new policy directory in ``sysfs``, and the policy pointer corresponding to
the given CPU is set to the new policy object's address in memory.
Next, the scaling driver's ``->init()`` callback is invoked with the policy
pointer of the new CPU passed to it as the argument. That callback is expected
to initialize the performance scaling hardware interface for the given CPU (or,
more precisely, for the set of CPUs sharing the hardware interface it belongs
to, represented by its policy object) and, if the policy object it has been
called for is new, to set parameters of the policy, like the minimum and maximum
frequencies supported by the hardware, the table of available frequencies (if
the set of supported P-states is not a continuous range), and the mask of CPUs
that belong to the same policy (including both online and offline CPUs). That
mask is then used by the core to populate the policy pointers for all of the
CPUs in it.
The next major initialization step for a new policy object is to attach a
scaling governor to it (to begin with, that is the default scaling governor
determined by the kernel configuration, but it may be changed later
via ``sysfs``). First, a pointer to the new policy object is passed to the
governor's ``->init()`` callback which is expected to initialize all of the
data structures necessary to handle the given policy and, possibly, to add
a governor ``sysfs`` interface to it. Next, the governor is started by
invoking its ``->start()`` callback.
That callback it expected to register per-CPU utilization update callbacks for
all of the online CPUs belonging to the given policy with the CPU scheduler.
The utilization update callbacks will be invoked by the CPU scheduler on
important events, like task enqueue and dequeue, on every iteration of the
scheduler tick or generally whenever the CPU utilization may change (from the
scheduler's perspective). They are expected to carry out computations needed
to determine the P-state to use for the given policy going forward and to
invoke the scaling driver to make changes to the hardware in accordance with
the P-state selection. The scaling driver may be invoked directly from
scheduler context or asynchronously, via a kernel thread or workqueue, depending
on the configuration and capabilities of the scaling driver and the governor.
Similar steps are taken for policy objects that are not new, but were "inactive"
previously, meaning that all of the CPUs belonging to them were offline. The
only practical difference in that case is that the ``CPUFreq`` core will attempt
to use the scaling governor previously used with the policy that became
"inactive" (and is re-initialized now) instead of the default governor.
In turn, if a previously offline CPU is being brought back online, but some
other CPUs sharing the policy object with it are online already, there is no
need to re-initialize the policy object at all. In that case, it only is
necessary to restart the scaling governor so that it can take the new online CPU
into account. That is achieved by invoking the governor's ``->stop`` and
``->start()`` callbacks, in this order, for the entire policy.
As mentioned before, the ``intel_pstate`` scaling driver bypasses the scaling
governor layer of ``CPUFreq`` and provides its own P-state selection algorithms.
Consequently, if ``intel_pstate`` is used, scaling governors are not attached to
new policy objects. Instead, the driver's ``->setpolicy()`` callback is invoked
to register per-CPU utilization update callbacks for each policy. These
callbacks are invoked by the CPU scheduler in the same way as for scaling
governors, but in the ``intel_pstate`` case they both determine the P-state to
use and change the hardware configuration accordingly in one go from scheduler
context.
The policy objects created during CPU initialization and other data structures
associated with them are torn down when the scaling driver is unregistered
(which happens when the kernel module containing it is unloaded, for example) or
when the last CPU belonging to the given policy in unregistered.
Policy Interface in ``sysfs``
=============================
During the initialization of the kernel, the ``CPUFreq`` core creates a
``sysfs`` directory (kobject) called ``cpufreq`` under
:file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/`.
That directory contains a ``policyX`` subdirectory (where ``X`` represents an
integer number) for every policy object maintained by the ``CPUFreq`` core.
Each ``policyX`` directory is pointed to by ``cpufreq`` symbolic links
under :file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuY/` (where ``Y`` represents an integer
that may be different from the one represented by ``X``) for all of the CPUs
associated with (or belonging to) the given policy. The ``policyX`` directories
in :file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq` each contain policy-specific
attributes (files) to control ``CPUFreq`` behavior for the corresponding policy
objects (that is, for all of the CPUs associated with them).
Some of those attributes are generic. They are created by the ``CPUFreq`` core
and their behavior generally does not depend on what scaling driver is in use
and what scaling governor is attached to the given policy. Some scaling drivers
also add driver-specific attributes to the policy directories in ``sysfs`` to
control policy-specific aspects of driver behavior.
The generic attributes under :file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policyX/`
are the following:
``affected_cpus``
List of online CPUs belonging to this policy (i.e. sharing the hardware
performance scaling interface represented by the ``policyX`` policy
object).
``bios_limit``
If the platform firmware (BIOS) tells the OS to apply an upper limit to
CPU frequencies, that limit will be reported through this attribute (if
present).
The existence of the limit may be a result of some (often unintentional)
BIOS settings, restrictions coming from a service processor or another
BIOS/HW-based mechanisms.
This does not cover ACPI thermal limitations which can be discovered
through a generic thermal driver.
This attribute is not present if the scaling driver in use does not
support it.
``cpuinfo_max_freq``
Maximum possible operating frequency the CPUs belonging to this policy
can run at (in kHz).
``cpuinfo_min_freq``
Minimum possible operating frequency the CPUs belonging to this policy
can run at (in kHz).
``cpuinfo_transition_latency``
The time it takes to switch the CPUs belonging to this policy from one
P-state to another, in nanoseconds.
If unknown or if known to be so high that the scaling driver does not
work with the `ondemand`_ governor, -1 (:c:macro:`CPUFREQ_ETERNAL`)
will be returned by reads from this attribute.
``related_cpus``
List of all (online and offline) CPUs belonging to this policy.
``scaling_available_governors``
List of ``CPUFreq`` scaling governors present in the kernel that can
be attached to this policy or (if the ``intel_pstate`` scaling driver is
in use) list of scaling algorithms provided by the driver that can be
applied to this policy.
[Note that some governors are modular and it may be necessary to load a
kernel module for the governor held by it to become available and be
listed by this attribute.]
``scaling_cur_freq``
Current frequency of all of the CPUs belonging to this policy (in kHz).
For the majority of scaling drivers, this is the frequency of the last
P-state requested by the driver from the hardware using the scaling
interface provided by it, which may or may not reflect the frequency
the CPU is actually running at (due to hardware design and other
limitations).
Some scaling drivers (e.g. ``intel_pstate``) attempt to provide
information more precisely reflecting the current CPU frequency through
this attribute, but that still may not be the exact current CPU
frequency as seen by the hardware at the moment.
``scaling_driver``
The scaling driver currently in use.
``scaling_governor``
The scaling governor currently attached to this policy or (if the
``intel_pstate`` scaling driver is in use) the scaling algorithm
provided by the driver that is currently applied to this policy.
This attribute is read-write and writing to it will cause a new scaling
governor to be attached to this policy or a new scaling algorithm
provided by the scaling driver to be applied to it (in the
``intel_pstate`` case), as indicated by the string written to this
attribute (which must be one of the names listed by the
``scaling_available_governors`` attribute described above).
``scaling_max_freq``
Maximum frequency the CPUs belonging to this policy are allowed to be
running at (in kHz).
This attribute is read-write and writing a string representing an
integer to it will cause a new limit to be set (it must not be lower
than the value of the ``scaling_min_freq`` attribute).
``scaling_min_freq``
Minimum frequency the CPUs belonging to this policy are allowed to be
running at (in kHz).
This attribute is read-write and writing a string representing a
non-negative integer to it will cause a new limit to be set (it must not
be higher than the value of the ``scaling_max_freq`` attribute).
``scaling_setspeed``
This attribute is functional only if the `userspace`_ scaling governor
is attached to the given policy.
It returns the last frequency requested by the governor (in kHz) or can
be written to in order to set a new frequency for the policy.
Generic Scaling Governors
=========================
``CPUFreq`` provides generic scaling governors that can be used with all
scaling drivers. As stated before, each of them implements a single, possibly
parametrized, performance scaling algorithm.
Scaling governors are attached to policy objects and different policy objects
can be handled by different scaling governors at the same time (although that
may lead to suboptimal results in some cases).
The scaling governor for a given policy object can be changed at any time with
the help of the ``scaling_governor`` policy attribute in ``sysfs``.
Some governors expose ``sysfs`` attributes to control or fine-tune the scaling
algorithms implemented by them. Those attributes, referred to as governor
tunables, can be either global (system-wide) or per-policy, depending on the
scaling driver in use. If the driver requires governor tunables to be
per-policy, they are located in a subdirectory of each policy directory.
Otherwise, they are located in a subdirectory under
:file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/`. In either case the name of the
subdirectory containing the governor tunables is the name of the governor
providing them.
``performance``
---------------
When attached to a policy object, this governor causes the highest frequency,
within the ``scaling_max_freq`` policy limit, to be requested for that policy.
The request is made once at that time the governor for the policy is set to
``performance`` and whenever the ``scaling_max_freq`` or ``scaling_min_freq``
policy limits change after that.
``powersave``
-------------
When attached to a policy object, this governor causes the lowest frequency,
within the ``scaling_min_freq`` policy limit, to be requested for that policy.
The request is made once at that time the governor for the policy is set to
``powersave`` and whenever the ``scaling_max_freq`` or ``scaling_min_freq``
policy limits change after that.
``userspace``
-------------
This governor does not do anything by itself. Instead, it allows user space
to set the CPU frequency for the policy it is attached to by writing to the
``scaling_setspeed`` attribute of that policy.
``schedutil``
-------------
This governor uses CPU utilization data available from the CPU scheduler. It
generally is regarded as a part of the CPU scheduler, so it can access the
scheduler's internal data structures directly.
It runs entirely in scheduler context, although in some cases it may need to
invoke the scaling driver asynchronously when it decides that the CPU frequency
should be changed for a given policy (that depends on whether or not the driver
is capable of changing the CPU frequency from scheduler context).
The actions of this governor for a particular CPU depend on the scheduling class
invoking its utilization update callback for that CPU. If it is invoked by the
RT or deadline scheduling classes, the governor will increase the frequency to
the allowed maximum (that is, the ``scaling_max_freq`` policy limit). In turn,
if it is invoked by the CFS scheduling class, the governor will use the
Per-Entity Load Tracking (PELT) metric for the root control group of the
given CPU as the CPU utilization estimate (see the `Per-entity load tracking`_
LWN.net article for a description of the PELT mechanism). Then, the new
CPU frequency to apply is computed in accordance with the formula
f = 1.25 * ``f_0`` * ``util`` / ``max``
where ``util`` is the PELT number, ``max`` is the theoretical maximum of
``util``, and ``f_0`` is either the maximum possible CPU frequency for the given
policy (if the PELT number is frequency-invariant), or the current CPU frequency
(otherwise).
This governor also employs a mechanism allowing it to temporarily bump up the
CPU frequency for tasks that have been waiting on I/O most recently, called
"IO-wait boosting". That happens when the :c:macro:`SCHED_CPUFREQ_IOWAIT` flag
is passed by the scheduler to the governor callback which causes the frequency
to go up to the allowed maximum immediately and then draw back to the value
returned by the above formula over time.
This governor exposes only one tunable:
``rate_limit_us``
Minimum time (in microseconds) that has to pass between two consecutive
runs of governor computations (default: 1000 times the scaling driver's
transition latency).
The purpose of this tunable is to reduce the scheduler context overhead
of the governor which might be excessive without it.
This governor generally is regarded as a replacement for the older `ondemand`_
and `conservative`_ governors (described below), as it is simpler and more
tightly integrated with the CPU scheduler, its overhead in terms of CPU context
switches and similar is less significant, and it uses the scheduler's own CPU
utilization metric, so in principle its decisions should not contradict the
decisions made by the other parts of the scheduler.
``ondemand``
------------
This governor uses CPU load as a CPU frequency selection metric.
In order to estimate the current CPU load, it measures the time elapsed between
consecutive invocations of its worker routine and computes the fraction of that
time in which the given CPU was not idle. The ratio of the non-idle (active)
time to the total CPU time is taken as an estimate of the load.
If this governor is attached to a policy shared by multiple CPUs, the load is
estimated for all of them and the greatest result is taken as the load estimate
for the entire policy.
The worker routine of this governor has to run in process context, so it is
invoked asynchronously (via a workqueue) and CPU P-states are updated from
there if necessary. As a result, the scheduler context overhead from this
governor is minimum, but it causes additional CPU context switches to happen
relatively often and the CPU P-state updates triggered by it can be relatively
irregular. Also, it affects its own CPU load metric by running code that
reduces the CPU idle time (even though the CPU idle time is only reduced very
slightly by it).
It generally selects CPU frequencies proportional to the estimated load, so that
the value of the ``cpuinfo_max_freq`` policy attribute corresponds to the load of
1 (or 100%), and the value of the ``cpuinfo_min_freq`` policy attribute
corresponds to the load of 0, unless when the load exceeds a (configurable)
speedup threshold, in which case it will go straight for the highest frequency
it is allowed to use (the ``scaling_max_freq`` policy limit).
This governor exposes the following tunables:
``sampling_rate``
This is how often the governor's worker routine should run, in
microseconds.
Typically, it is set to values of the order of 10000 (10 ms). Its
default value is equal to the value of ``cpuinfo_transition_latency``
for each policy this governor is attached to (but since the unit here
is greater by 1000, this means that the time represented by
``sampling_rate`` is 1000 times greater than the transition latency by
default).
If this tunable is per-policy, the following shell command sets the time
represented by it to be 750 times as high as the transition latency::
# echo `$(($(cat cpuinfo_transition_latency) * 750 / 1000)) > ondemand/sampling_rate
``min_sampling_rate``
The minimum value of ``sampling_rate``.
Equal to 10000 (10 ms) if :c:macro:`CONFIG_NO_HZ_COMMON` and
:c:data:`tick_nohz_active` are both set or to 20 times the value of
:c:data:`jiffies` in microseconds otherwise.
``up_threshold``
If the estimated CPU load is above this value (in percent), the governor
will set the frequency to the maximum value allowed for the policy.
Otherwise, the selected frequency will be proportional to the estimated
CPU load.
``ignore_nice_load``
If set to 1 (default 0), it will cause the CPU load estimation code to
treat the CPU time spent on executing tasks with "nice" levels greater
than 0 as CPU idle time.
This may be useful if there are tasks in the system that should not be
taken into account when deciding what frequency to run the CPUs at.
Then, to make that happen it is sufficient to increase the "nice" level
of those tasks above 0 and set this attribute to 1.
``sampling_down_factor``
Temporary multiplier, between 1 (default) and 100 inclusive, to apply to
the ``sampling_rate`` value if the CPU load goes above ``up_threshold``.
This causes the next execution of the governor's worker routine (after
setting the frequency to the allowed maximum) to be delayed, so the
frequency stays at the maximum level for a longer time.
Frequency fluctuations in some bursty workloads may be avoided this way
at the cost of additional energy spent on maintaining the maximum CPU
capacity.
``powersave_bias``
Reduction factor to apply to the original frequency target of the
governor (including the maximum value used when the ``up_threshold``
value is exceeded by the estimated CPU load) or sensitivity threshold
for the AMD frequency sensitivity powersave bias driver
(:file:`drivers/cpufreq/amd_freq_sensitivity.c`), between 0 and 1000
inclusive.
If the AMD frequency sensitivity powersave bias driver is not loaded,
the effective frequency to apply is given by
f * (1 - ``powersave_bias`` / 1000)
where f is the governor's original frequency target. The default value
of this attribute is 0 in that case.
If the AMD frequency sensitivity powersave bias driver is loaded, the
value of this attribute is 400 by default and it is used in a different
way.
On Family 16h (and later) AMD processors there is a mechanism to get a
measured workload sensitivity, between 0 and 100% inclusive, from the
hardware. That value can be used to estimate how the performance of the
workload running on a CPU will change in response to frequency changes.
The performance of a workload with the sensitivity of 0 (memory-bound or
IO-bound) is not expected to increase at all as a result of increasing
the CPU frequency, whereas workloads with the sensitivity of 100%
(CPU-bound) are expected to perform much better if the CPU frequency is
increased.
If the workload sensitivity is less than the threshold represented by
the ``powersave_bias`` value, the sensitivity powersave bias driver
will cause the governor to select a frequency lower than its original
target, so as to avoid over-provisioning workloads that will not benefit
from running at higher CPU frequencies.
``conservative``
----------------
This governor uses CPU load as a CPU frequency selection metric.
It estimates the CPU load in the same way as the `ondemand`_ governor described
above, but the CPU frequency selection algorithm implemented by it is different.
Namely, it avoids changing the frequency significantly over short time intervals
which may not be suitable for systems with limited power supply capacity (e.g.
battery-powered). To achieve that, it changes the frequency in relatively
small steps, one step at a time, up or down - depending on whether or not a
(configurable) threshold has been exceeded by the estimated CPU load.
This governor exposes the following tunables:
``freq_step``
Frequency step in percent of the maximum frequency the governor is
allowed to set (the ``scaling_max_freq`` policy limit), between 0 and
100 (5 by default).
This is how much the frequency is allowed to change in one go. Setting
it to 0 will cause the default frequency step (5 percent) to be used
and setting it to 100 effectively causes the governor to periodically
switch the frequency between the ``scaling_min_freq`` and
``scaling_max_freq`` policy limits.
``down_threshold``
Threshold value (in percent, 20 by default) used to determine the
frequency change direction.
If the estimated CPU load is greater than this value, the frequency will
go up (by ``freq_step``). If the load is less than this value (and the
``sampling_down_factor`` mechanism is not in effect), the frequency will
go down. Otherwise, the frequency will not be changed.
``sampling_down_factor``
Frequency decrease deferral factor, between 1 (default) and 10
inclusive.
It effectively causes the frequency to go down ``sampling_down_factor``
times slower than it ramps up.
Frequency Boost Support
=======================
Background
----------
Some processors support a mechanism to raise the operating frequency of some
cores in a multicore package temporarily (and above the sustainable frequency
threshold for the whole package) under certain conditions, for example if the
whole chip is not fully utilized and below its intended thermal or power budget.
Different names are used by different vendors to refer to this functionality.
For Intel processors it is referred to as "Turbo Boost", AMD calls it
"Turbo-Core" or (in technical documentation) "Core Performance Boost" and so on.
As a rule, it also is implemented differently by different vendors. The simple
term "frequency boost" is used here for brevity to refer to all of those
implementations.
The frequency boost mechanism may be either hardware-based or software-based.
If it is hardware-based (e.g. on x86), the decision to trigger the boosting is
made by the hardware (although in general it requires the hardware to be put
into a special state in which it can control the CPU frequency within certain
limits). If it is software-based (e.g. on ARM), the scaling driver decides
whether or not to trigger boosting and when to do that.
The ``boost`` File in ``sysfs``
-------------------------------
This file is located under :file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/` and controls
the "boost" setting for the whole system. It is not present if the underlying
scaling driver does not support the frequency boost mechanism (or supports it,
but provides a driver-specific interface for controlling it, like
``intel_pstate``).
If the value in this file is 1, the frequency boost mechanism is enabled. This
means that either the hardware can be put into states in which it is able to
trigger boosting (in the hardware-based case), or the software is allowed to
trigger boosting (in the software-based case). It does not mean that boosting
is actually in use at the moment on any CPUs in the system. It only means a
permission to use the frequency boost mechanism (which still may never be used
for other reasons).
If the value in this file is 0, the frequency boost mechanism is disabled and
cannot be used at all.
The only values that can be written to this file are 0 and 1.
Rationale for Boost Control Knob
--------------------------------
The frequency boost mechanism is generally intended to help to achieve optimum
CPU performance on time scales below software resolution (e.g. below the
scheduler tick interval) and it is demonstrably suitable for many workloads, but
it may lead to problems in certain situations.
For this reason, many systems make it possible to disable the frequency boost
mechanism in the platform firmware (BIOS) setup, but that requires the system to
be restarted for the setting to be adjusted as desired, which may not be
practical at least in some cases. For example:
1. Boosting means overclocking the processor, although under controlled
conditions. Generally, the processor's energy consumption increases
as a result of increasing its frequency and voltage, even temporarily.
That may not be desirable on systems that switch to power sources of
limited capacity, such as batteries, so the ability to disable the boost
mechanism while the system is running may help there (but that depends on
the workload too).
2. In some situations deterministic behavior is more important than
performance or energy consumption (or both) and the ability to disable
boosting while the system is running may be useful then.
3. To examine the impact of the frequency boost mechanism itself, it is useful
to be able to run tests with and without boosting, preferably without
restarting the system in the meantime.
4. Reproducible results are important when running benchmarks. Since
the boosting functionality depends on the load of the whole package,
single-thread performance may vary because of it which may lead to
unreproducible results sometimes. That can be avoided by disabling the
frequency boost mechanism before running benchmarks sensitive to that
issue.
Legacy AMD ``cpb`` Knob
-----------------------
The AMD powernow-k8 scaling driver supports a ``sysfs`` knob very similar to
the global ``boost`` one. It is used for disabling/enabling the "Core
Performance Boost" feature of some AMD processors.
If present, that knob is located in every ``CPUFreq`` policy directory in
``sysfs`` (:file:`/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policyX/`) and is called
``cpb``, which indicates a more fine grained control interface. The actual
implementation, however, works on the system-wide basis and setting that knob
for one policy causes the same value of it to be set for all of the other
policies at the same time.
That knob is still supported on AMD processors that support its underlying
hardware feature, but it may be configured out of the kernel (via the
:c:macro:`CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ_CPB` configuration option) and the global
``boost`` knob is present regardless. Thus it is always possible use the
``boost`` knob instead of the ``cpb`` one which is highly recommended, as that
is more consistent with what all of the other systems do (and the ``cpb`` knob
may not be supported any more in the future).
The ``cpb`` knob is never present for any processors without the underlying
hardware feature (e.g. all Intel ones), even if the
:c:macro:`CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ_CPB` configuration option is set.
.. _Per-entity load tracking: https://lwn.net/Articles/531853/

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================
Power Management
================
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 2
cpufreq
.. only:: subproject and html
Indices
=======
* :ref:`genindex`

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Processor boosting control
- information for users -
Quick guide for the impatient:
--------------------
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost
controls the boost setting for the whole system. You can read and write
that file with either "0" (boosting disabled) or "1" (boosting allowed).
Reading or writing 1 does not mean that the system is boosting at this
very moment, but only that the CPU _may_ raise the frequency at it's
discretion.
--------------------
Introduction
-------------
Some CPUs support a functionality to raise the operating frequency of
some cores in a multi-core package if certain conditions apply, mostly
if the whole chip is not fully utilized and below it's intended thermal
budget. The decision about boost disable/enable is made either at hardware
(e.g. x86) or software (e.g ARM).
On Intel CPUs this is called "Turbo Boost", AMD calls it "Turbo-Core",
in technical documentation "Core performance boost". In Linux we use
the term "boost" for convenience.
Rationale for disable switch
----------------------------
Though the idea is to just give better performance without any user
intervention, sometimes the need arises to disable this functionality.
Most systems offer a switch in the (BIOS) firmware to disable the
functionality at all, but a more fine-grained and dynamic control would
be desirable:
1. While running benchmarks, reproducible results are important. Since
the boosting functionality depends on the load of the whole package,
single thread performance can vary. By explicitly disabling the boost
functionality at least for the benchmark's run-time the system will run
at a fixed frequency and results are reproducible again.
2. To examine the impact of the boosting functionality it is helpful
to do tests with and without boosting.
3. Boosting means overclocking the processor, though under controlled
conditions. By raising the frequency and the voltage the processor
will consume more power than without the boosting, which may be
undesirable for instance for mobile users. Disabling boosting may
save power here, though this depends on the workload.
User controlled switch
----------------------
To allow the user to toggle the boosting functionality, the cpufreq core
driver exports a sysfs knob to enable or disable it. There is a file:
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/boost
which can either read "0" (boosting disabled) or "1" (boosting enabled).
The file is exported only when cpufreq driver supports boosting.
Explicitly changing the permissions and writing to that file anyway will
return EINVAL.
On supported CPUs one can write either a "0" or a "1" into this file.
This will either disable the boost functionality on all cores in the
whole system (0) or will allow the software or hardware to boost at will
(1).
Writing a "1" does not explicitly boost the system, but just allows the
CPU to boost at their discretion. Some implementations take external
factors like the chip's temperature into account, so boosting once does
not necessarily mean that it will occur every time even using the exact
same software setup.
AMD legacy cpb switch
---------------------
The AMD powernow-k8 driver used to support a very similar switch to
disable or enable the "Core Performance Boost" feature of some AMD CPUs.
This switch was instantiated in each CPU's cpufreq directory
(/sys/devices/system/cpu[0-9]*/cpufreq) and was called "cpb".
Though the per CPU existence hints at a more fine grained control, the
actual implementation only supported a system-global switch semantics,
which was simply reflected into each CPU's file. Writing a 0 or 1 into it
would pull the other CPUs to the same state.
For compatibility reasons this file and its behavior is still supported
on AMD CPUs, though it is now protected by a config switch
(X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ_CPB). On Intel CPUs this file will never be created,
even with the config option set.
This functionality is considered legacy and will be removed in some future
kernel version.
More fine grained boosting control
----------------------------------
Technically it is possible to switch the boosting functionality at least
on a per package basis, for some CPUs even per core. Currently the driver
does not support it, but this may be implemented in the future.

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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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@ -21,8 +21,6 @@ Documents in this directory:
amd-powernow.txt - AMD powernow driver specific file.
boost.txt - Frequency boosting support.
core.txt - General description of the CPUFreq core and
of CPUFreq notifiers.
@ -32,17 +30,12 @@ cpufreq-nforce2.txt - nVidia nForce2 platform specific file.
cpufreq-stats.txt - General description of sysfs cpufreq stats.
governors.txt - What are cpufreq governors and how to
implement them?
index.txt - File index, Mailing list and Links (this document)
intel-pstate.txt - Intel pstate cpufreq driver specific file.
pcc-cpufreq.txt - PCC cpufreq driver specific file.
user-guide.txt - User Guide to CPUFreq
Mailing List
------------

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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
U S E R G U I D E
Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
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. Supported Architectures and Processors
1.1 ARM and ARM64
1.2 x86
1.3 sparc64
1.4 ppc
1.5 SuperH
1.6 Blackfin
2. "Policy" / "Governor"?
2.1 Policy
2.2 Governor
3. How to change the CPU cpufreq policy and/or speed
3.1 Preferred interface: sysfs
1. Supported Architectures and Processors
=========================================
1.1 ARM and ARM64
-----------------
Almost all ARM and ARM64 platforms support CPU frequency scaling.
1.2 x86
-------
The following processors for the x86 architecture are supported by cpufreq:
AMD Elan - SC400, SC410
AMD mobile K6-2+
AMD mobile K6-3+
AMD mobile Duron
AMD mobile Athlon
AMD Opteron
AMD Athlon 64
Cyrix Media GXm
Intel mobile PIII and Intel mobile PIII-M on certain chipsets
Intel Pentium 4, Intel Xeon
Intel Pentium M (Centrino)
National Semiconductors Geode GX
Transmeta Crusoe
Transmeta Efficeon
VIA Cyrix 3 / C3
various processors on some ACPI 2.0-compatible systems [*]
And many more
[*] Only if "ACPI Processor Performance States" are available
to the ACPI<->BIOS interface.
1.3 sparc64
-----------
The following processors for the sparc64 architecture are supported by
cpufreq:
UltraSPARC-III
1.4 ppc
-------
Several "PowerBook" and "iBook2" notebooks are supported.
The following POWER processors are supported in powernv mode:
POWER8
POWER9
1.5 SuperH
----------
All SuperH processors supporting rate rounding through the clock
framework are supported by cpufreq.
1.6 Blackfin
------------
The following Blackfin processors are supported by cpufreq:
BF522, BF523, BF524, BF525, BF526, BF527, Rev 0.1 or higher
BF531, BF532, BF533, Rev 0.3 or higher
BF534, BF536, BF537, Rev 0.2 or higher
BF561, Rev 0.3 or higher
BF542, BF544, BF547, BF548, BF549, Rev 0.1 or higher
2. "Policy" / "Governor" ?
==========================
Some CPU frequency scaling-capable processor switch between various
frequencies and operating voltages "on the fly" without any kernel or
user involvement. This guarantees very fast switching to a frequency
which is high enough to serve the user's needs, but low enough to save
power.
2.1 Policy
----------
On these systems, all you can do is select the lower and upper
frequency limit as well as whether you want more aggressive
power-saving or more instantly available processing power.
2.2 Governor
------------
On all other cpufreq implementations, these boundaries still need to
be set. Then, a "governor" must be selected. Such a "governor" decides
what speed the processor shall run within the boundaries. One such
"governor" is the "userspace" governor. This one allows the user - or
a yet-to-implement userspace program - to decide what specific speed
the processor shall run at.
3. How to change the CPU cpufreq policy and/or speed
====================================================
3.1 Preferred Interface: sysfs
------------------------------
The preferred interface is located in the sysfs filesystem. If you
mounted it at /sys, the cpufreq interface is located in a subdirectory
"cpufreq" within the cpu-device directory
(e.g. /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ for the first CPU).
affected_cpus : List of Online CPUs that require software
coordination of frequency.
cpuinfo_cur_freq : Current frequency of the CPU as obtained from
the hardware, in KHz. This is the frequency
the CPU actually runs at.
cpuinfo_min_freq : this file shows the minimum operating
frequency the processor can run at(in kHz)
cpuinfo_max_freq : this file shows the maximum operating
frequency the processor can run at(in kHz)
cpuinfo_transition_latency The time it takes on this CPU to
switch between two frequencies in nano
seconds. If unknown or known to be
that high that the driver does not
work with the ondemand governor, -1
(CPUFREQ_ETERNAL) will be returned.
Using this information can be useful
to choose an appropriate polling
frequency for a kernel governor or
userspace daemon. Make sure to not
switch the frequency too often
resulting in performance loss.
related_cpus : List of Online + Offline CPUs that need software
coordination of frequency.
scaling_available_frequencies : List of available frequencies, in KHz.
scaling_available_governors : this file shows the CPUfreq governors
available in this kernel. You can see the
currently activated governor in
scaling_cur_freq : Current frequency of the CPU as determined by
the governor and cpufreq core, in KHz. This is
the frequency the kernel thinks the CPU runs
at.
scaling_driver : this file shows what cpufreq driver is
used to set the frequency on this CPU
scaling_governor, and by "echoing" the name of another
governor you can change it. Please note
that some governors won't load - they only
work on some specific architectures or
processors.
scaling_min_freq and
scaling_max_freq show the current "policy limits" (in
kHz). By echoing new values into these
files, you can change these limits.
NOTE: when setting a policy you need to
first set scaling_max_freq, then
scaling_min_freq.
scaling_setspeed This can be read to get the currently programmed
value by the governor. This can be written to
change the current frequency for a group of
CPUs, represented by a policy. This is supported
currently only by the userspace governor.
bios_limit : If the BIOS tells the OS to limit a CPU to
lower frequencies, the user can read out the
maximum available frequency from this file.
This typically can happen through (often not
intended) BIOS settings, restrictions
triggered through a service processor or other
BIOS/HW based implementations.
This does not cover thermal ACPI limitations
which can be detected through the generic
thermal driver.
If you have selected the "userspace" governor which allows you to
set the CPU operating frequency to a specific value, you can read out
the current frequency in
scaling_setspeed. By "echoing" a new frequency into this
you can change the speed of the CPU,
but only within the limits of
scaling_min_freq and scaling_max_freq.