cpufreq: ondemand: Eliminate the deadband effect
Currently, ondemand calculates the target frequency proportional to load using the formula: Target frequency = C * load where C = policy->cpuinfo.max_freq / 100 Though, in many cases, the minimum available frequency is pretty high and the above calculation introduces a dead band from load 0 to 100 * policy->cpuinfo.min_freq / policy->cpuinfo.max_freq where the target frequency is always calculated to less than policy->cpuinfo.min_freq and the minimum frequency is selected. For example: on Intel i7-3770 @ 3.4GHz the policy->cpuinfo.min_freq = 1600000 and the policy->cpuinfo.max_freq = 3400000 (without turbo). Thus, the CPU starts to scale up at a load above 47. On quad core 1500MHz Krait the policy->cpuinfo.min_freq = 384000 and the policy->cpuinfo.max_freq = 1512000. Thus, the CPU starts to scale at load above 25. Change the calculation of target frequency to eliminate the above effect using the formula: Target frequency = A + B * load where A = policy->cpuinfo.min_freq and B = (policy->cpuinfo.max_freq - policy->cpuinfo->min_freq) / 100 This will map load values 0 to 100 linearly to cpuinfo.min_freq to cpuinfo.max_freq. Also, use the CPUFREQ_RELATION_C in __cpufreq_driver_target to select the closest frequency in frequency_table. This is necessary to avoid selection of minimum frequency only when load equals to 0. It will also help for selection of frequencies using a more 'fair' criterion. Tables below show the difference in selected frequency for specific values of load without and with this patch. On Intel i7-3770 @ 3.40GHz: Without With Load Target Selected Target Selected 0 0 1600000 1600000 1600000 5 170050 1600000 1690050 1700000 10 340100 1600000 1780100 1700000 15 510150 1600000 1870150 1900000 20 680200 1600000 1960200 2000000 25 850250 1600000 2050250 2100000 30 1020300 1600000 2140300 2100000 35 1190350 1600000 2230350 2200000 40 1360400 1600000 2320400 2400000 45 1530450 1600000 2410450 2400000 50 1700500 1900000 2500500 2500000 55 1870550 1900000 2590550 2600000 60 2040600 2100000 2680600 2600000 65 2210650 2400000 2770650 2800000 70 2380700 2400000 2860700 2800000 75 2550750 2600000 2950750 3000000 80 2720800 2800000 3040800 3000000 85 2890850 2900000 3130850 3100000 90 3060900 3100000 3220900 3300000 95 3230950 3300000 3310950 3300000 100 3401000 3401000 3401000 3401000 On ARM quad core 1500MHz Krait: Without With Load Target Selected Target Selected 0 0 384000 384000 384000 5 75600 384000 440400 486000 10 151200 384000 496800 486000 15 226800 384000 553200 594000 20 302400 384000 609600 594000 25 378000 384000 666000 702000 30 453600 486000 722400 702000 35 529200 594000 778800 810000 40 604800 702000 835200 810000 45 680400 702000 891600 918000 50 756000 810000 948000 918000 55 831600 918000 1004400 1026000 60 907200 918000 1060800 1026000 65 982800 1026000 1117200 1134000 70 1058400 1134000 1173600 1134000 75 1134000 1134000 1230000 1242000 80 1209600 1242000 1286400 1242000 85 1285200 1350000 1342800 1350000 90 1360800 1458000 1399200 1350000 95 1436400 1458000 1455600 1458000 100 1512000 1512000 1512000 1512000 Tested on Intel i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz and on ARM quad core 1500MHz Krait (Android smartphone). Benchmarks on Intel i7 shows a performance improvement on low and medium work loads with lower power consumption. Specifics: Phoronix Linux Kernel Compilation 3.1: Time: -0.40%, energy: -0.07% Phoronix Apache: Time: -4.98%, energy: -2.35% Phoronix FFMPEG: Time: -6.29%, energy: -4.02% Also, running mp3 decoding (very low load) shows no differences with and without this patch. Signed-off-by: Stratos Karafotis <stratosk@semaphore.gr> Signed-off-by: Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com>