Linux Plumbers Conf 2013

One Line Summary

Abstract

Database, high-performance computing (HPC), and real-time developers have often asked: “Can’t you get the kernel out of the way?”. Recent adaptive-idle work permits just that: Linux is there when you need it, but if you follow a few simple rules, it is out of your way otherwise. This approach will provide bare-metal multicore performance and scalability to databases as well as to HPC and real-time applications. However, timekeeping requires that at least one CPU continue in high-power mode if any non-idle execution is in flight. Unfortunately, simple code to determine if all CPUs are idle is not scalable. This talk will give an overview of adaptive idle and outline some of the work to scalably determine whether the timekeeping CPU can go into low-power mode while avoiding any embarrassing time-skew incidents.

Speaker

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  Paul McKenney

  IBM Linux Technology Center
  • Website: http://www.rdrop.com/users/paulmck
  • Blog: http://paulmck.livejournal.com/

  Biography

  Paul E. McKenney has been coding for almost four decades, more than half of that on parallel hardware, where his work has earned him a reputation among some as a flaming heretic. Over the past decade, Paul has been an IBM Distinguished Engineer at the IBM Linux Technology Center. Paul maintains the RCU implementation within the Linux kernel, where the variety of workloads present highly entertaining performance, scalability, real-time response, and energy-efficiency challenges. Prior to that, he worked on the DYNIX/ptx kernel at Sequent, and prior to that on packet-radio and Internet protocols (but long before it was polite to mention Internet at cocktail parties), system administration, business applications, and real-time systems. His hobbies include what passes for running at his age along with the usual house-wife-and-kids habit.