Linux Dynticks Being Extended For Performance Wins

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux Dynticks Being Extended For Performance Wins

Dynticks, the Dynamic Tick Timer for allowing the Linux kernel to skip ticks while idling and resume to running at full HZ when encountering load, is in the process of being extended. Developers are working on making Dynticks work even under select workloads in order to enhance the performance of CPU-intensive tasks...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTI1NTg

[Veerappan]

Sounds like a good idea in general. We'll see how it turns out.

[gQuigs]

LKML: https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/12/17/177

[Bernard Swiss]

I thought the Linux kernel had gone "tick-less" a while back?

And in any case, how would this be different?

[smitty3268]

I thought the Linux kernel had gone "tick-less" a while back?

And in any case, how would this be different?

It's "tickless" in the way it sleeps while idle, no longer polling itself when there is nothing to do.

This new works extends that to keep being tickless even while the cpu is busy working.

Not waking while idle was a big improvement for power usage. The new work should help improve performance, since the kernel is no longer interrupting tasks and flushing hardware caches so often.

[Bernard Swiss]

It's "tickless" in the way it sleeps while idle, no longer polling itself when there is nothing to do.

This new works extends that to keep being tickless even while the cpu is busy working.

Not waking while idle was a big improvement for power usage. The new work should help improve performance, since the kernel is no longer interrupting tasks and flushing hardware caches so often.

Thanks, that's enough to put it into perspective for me.
(That was roughly what I was understanding, but I wasn't at all sure I got it right).