nvme: extend and modify the APST configuration algorithm
The algorithm that was used until now for building the APST configuration table has been found to produce entries with excessively long ITPT (idle time prior to transition) for devices declaring relatively long entry and exit latencies for non-operational power states. This leads to unnecessary waste of power and, as a result, failure to pass mandatory power consumption tests on Chromebook platforms. The new algorithm is based on two predefined ITPT values and two predefined latency tolerances. Based on these values, as well as on exit and entry latencies reported by the device, the algorithm looks for up to 2 suitable non-operational power states to use as primary and secondary APST transition targets. The predefined values are supplied to the nvme driver as module parameters: - apst_primary_timeout_ms (default: 100) - apst_secondary_timeout_ms (default: 2000) - apst_primary_latency_tol_us (default: 15000) - apst_secondary_latency_tol_us (default: 100000) The algorithm echoes the approach used by Intel's and Microsoft's drivers on Windows. The specific default parameter values are also based on those drivers. Yet, this patch doesn't introduce the ability to dynamically regenerate the APST table in the event of switching the power source from AC to battery and back. Adding this functionality may be considered in the future. In the meantime, the timeouts and tolerances reflect a compromise between values used by Microsoft for AC and battery scenarios. In most NVMe devices the new algorithm causes them to implement a more aggressive power saving policy. While beneficial in most cases, this sometimes comes at the price of a higher IO processing latency in certain scenarios as well as at the price of a potential impact on the drive's endurance (due to more frequent context saving when entering deep non- operational states). So in order to provide a fallback for systems where these regressions cannot be tolerated, the patch allows to revert to the legacy behavior by setting either apst_primary_timeout_ms or apst_primary_latency_tol_us parameter to 0. Eventually (and possibly after fine tuning the default values of the module parameters) the legacy behavior can be removed. TESTING. The new algorithm has been extensively tested. Initially, simulations were used to compare APST tables generated by old and new algorithms for a wide range of devices. After that, power consumption, performance and latencies were measured under different workloads on devices from multiple vendors (WD, Intel, Samsung, Hynix, Kioxia). Below is the description of the tests and the findings. General observations. The effect the patch has on the APST table varies depending on the entry and exit latencies advertised by the devices. For some devices, the effect is negligible (e.g. Kioxia KBG40ZNS), for some significant, making the transitions to PS3 and PS4 much quicker (e.g. WD SN530, Intel 760P), or making the sleep deeper, PS4 rather than PS3 after a similar amount of time (e.g. SK Hynix BC511). For some devices (e.g. Samsung PM991) the effect is mixed: the initial transition happens after a longer idle time, but takes the device to a lower power state. Workflows. In order to evaluate the patch's effect on the power consumption and latency, 7 workflows were used for each device. The workflows were designed to test the scenarios where significant differences between the old and new behaviors are most likely. Each workflow was tested twice: with the new and with the old APST table generation implementation. Power consumption, performance and latency were measured in the process. The following workflows were used: 1) Consecutive write at the maximum rate with IO depth of 2, with no pauses 2) Repeated pattern of 1000 consecutive writes of 4K packets followed by 50ms idle time 3) Repeated pattern of 1000 consecutive writes of 4K packets followed by 150ms idle time 4) Repeated pattern of 1000 consecutive writes of 4K packets followed by 500ms idle time 5) Repeated pattern of 1000 consecutive writes of 4K packets followed by 1.5s idle time 6) Repeated pattern of 1000 consecutive writes of 4K packets followed by 5s idle time 7) Repeated pattern of a single random read of a 4K packet followed by 150ms idle time Power consumption Actual power consumption measurements produced predictable results in accordance with the APST mechanism's theory of operation. Devices with long entry and exit latencies such as WD SN530 showed huge improvement on scenarios 4,5 and 6 of up to 62%. Devices such as Kioxia KBG40ZNS where the resulting APST table looks virtually identical with both legacy and new algorithms, showed little or no change in the average power consumption on all workflows. Devices with extra short latencies such as Samsung PM991 showed moderate increase in power consumption of up to 18% in worst case scenarios. In addition, on Intel and Samsung devices a more complex impact was observed on scenarios 3, 4 and 7. Our understanding is that due to longer stay in deep non-operational states between the writes the devices start performing background operations leading to an increase of power consumption. With the old APST tables part of these operations are delayed until the scenario is over and a longer idle period begins, but eventually this extra power is consumed anyway. Performance. In terms of performance measured on sustained write or read scenarios, the effect of the patch is minimal as in this case the device doesn't enter low power states. Latency As expected, in devices where the patch causes a more aggressive power saving policy (e.g. WD SN530, Intel 760P), an increase in latency was observed in certain scenarios. Workflow number 7, specifically designed to simulate the worst case scenario as far as latency is concerned, indeed shows a sharp increase in average latency (~2ms -> ~53ms on Intel 760P and 0.6 -> 10ms on WD SN530). The latency increase on other workloads and other devices is much milder or non-existent. Signed-off-by: Alexey Bogoslavsky <alexey.bogoslavsky@wdc.com> Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
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