Re: tbench regression in 2.6.25-rc1

From: Eric Dumazet <dada1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:21:48 +0100

On linux-2.6.25-rc1 x86_64 :

offsetof(struct dst_entry, lastuse)=0xb0
offsetof(struct dst_entry, __refcnt)=0xb8
offsetof(struct dst_entry, __use)=0xbc
offsetof(struct dst_entry, next)=0xc0

So it should be optimal... I dont know why tbench prefers __refcnt being
on 0xc0, since in this case lastuse will be on a different cache line...

Each incoming IP packet will need to change lastuse, __refcnt and __use,
so keeping them in the same cache line is a win.

I suspect then that even this patch could help tbench, since it avoids
writing lastuse...

I think your suspicions are right, and even moreso
it helps to keep __refcnt out of the same cache line
as input/output/ops which are read-almost-entirely :-)

I haven't done an exhaustive analysis, but it seems that
the write traffic to lastuse and __refcnt are about the
same. However if we find that __refcnt gets hit more
than lastuse in this workload, it explains the regression.


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