From: Keith Busch <keith.busch@intel.com>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-acpi@vger.kernel.org,
linux-mm@kvack.org
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
Rafael Wysocki <rafael@kernel.org>,
Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@intel.com>,
Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>,
Keith Busch <keith.busch@intel.com>
Subject: [PATCH 5/7] doc/vm: New documentation for memory cache
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2018 15:49:18 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20181114224921.12123-6-keith.busch@intel.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20181114224921.12123-2-keith.busch@intel.com>
Platforms may provide system memory that contains side caches to help
spped up access. These memory caches are part of a memory node and
the cache attributes are exported by the kernel.
Add new documentation providing a brief overview of system memory side
caches and the kernel provided attributes for application optimization.
Signed-off-by: Keith Busch <keith.busch@intel.com>
---
Documentation/vm/numacache.rst | 76 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 76 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 Documentation/vm/numacache.rst
diff --git a/Documentation/vm/numacache.rst b/Documentation/vm/numacache.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e79c801b7e3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/vm/numacache.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+.. _numacache:
+
+==========
+NUMA Cache
+==========
+
+System memory may be constructed in a hierarchy of various performing
+characteristics in order to provide large address space of slower
+performing memory cached by a smaller size of higher performing
+memory. The system physical addresses that software is aware of see
+is provided by the last memory level in the hierarchy, while higher
+performing memory transparently provides caching to slower levels.
+
+The term "far memory" is used to denote the last level memory in the
+hierarchy. Each increasing cache level provides higher performing CPU
+access, and the term "near memory" represents the highest level cache
+provided by the system. This number is different than CPU caches where
+the cache level (ex: L1, L2, L3) uses a CPU centric view with each level
+being lower performing and closer to system memory. The memory cache
+level is centric to the last level memory, so the higher numbered cache
+level denotes memory nearer to the CPU, and further from far memory.
+
+The memory side caches are not directly addressable by software. When
+software accesses a system address, the system will return it from the
+near memory cache if it is present. If it is not present, the system
+accesses the next level of memory until there is either a hit in that
+cache level, or it reaches far memory.
+
+In order to maximize the performance out of such a setup, software may
+wish to query the memory cache attributes. If the system provides a way
+to query this information, for example with ACPI HMAT (Heterogeneous
+Memory Attribute Table)[1], the kernel will append these attributes to
+the NUMA node that provides the memory.
+
+When the kernel first registers a memory cache with a node, the kernel
+will create the following directory::
+
+ /sys/devices/system/node/nodeX/cache/
+
+If that directory is not present, then either the memory does not have
+a side cache, or that information is not provided to the kernel.
+
+The attributes for each level of cache is provided under its cache
+level index::
+
+ /sys/devices/system/node/nodeX/cache/indexA/
+ /sys/devices/system/node/nodeX/cache/indexB/
+ /sys/devices/system/node/nodeX/cache/indexC/
+
+Each cache level's directory provides its attributes. For example,
+the following is a single cache level and the attributes available for
+software to query::
+
+ # tree sys/devices/system/node/node0/cache/
+ /sys/devices/system/node/node0/cache/
+ |-- index1
+ | |-- associativity
+ | |-- level
+ | |-- line_size
+ | |-- size
+ | `-- write_policy
+
+The cache "associativity" will be 0 if it is a direct-mapped cache, and
+non-zero for any other indexed based, multi-way associativity.
+
+The "level" is the distance from the far memory, and matches the number
+appended to its "index" directory.
+
+The "line_size" is the number of bytes accessed on a cache miss.
+
+The "size" is the number of bytes provided by this cache level.
+
+The "write_policy" will be 0 for write-back, and non-zero for
+write-through caching.
+
+[1] https://www.uefi.org/sites/default/files/resources/ACPI_6_2.pdf
--
2.14.4
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2018-11-14 22:53 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 43+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2018-11-14 22:49 [PATCH 1/7] node: Link memory nodes to their compute nodes Keith Busch
2018-11-14 22:49 ` [PATCH 2/7] node: Add heterogenous memory performance Keith Busch
2018-11-19 3:35 ` Anshuman Khandual
2018-11-19 15:46 ` Keith Busch
2018-11-22 13:22 ` Anshuman Khandual
2018-11-27 7:00 ` Dan Williams
2018-11-27 17:42 ` Dan Williams
2018-11-27 17:44 ` Keith Busch
2018-11-14 22:49 ` [PATCH 3/7] doc/vm: New documentation for " Keith Busch
2018-11-15 12:59 ` Jonathan Cameron
2018-12-10 16:12 ` Dan Williams
2018-11-20 13:51 ` Mike Rapoport
2018-11-20 15:31 ` Keith Busch
2018-11-14 22:49 ` [PATCH 4/7] node: Add memory caching attributes Keith Busch
2018-11-15 0:40 ` Dave Hansen
2018-11-19 4:14 ` Anshuman Khandual
2018-11-19 23:06 ` Keith Busch
2018-11-22 13:29 ` Anshuman Khandual
2018-11-26 15:14 ` Keith Busch
2018-11-26 19:06 ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
2018-11-26 19:53 ` Keith Busch
2018-11-26 19:06 ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
2018-11-14 22:49 ` Keith Busch [this message]
2018-11-15 0:41 ` [PATCH 5/7] doc/vm: New documentation for memory cache Dave Hansen
2018-11-15 13:16 ` Jonathan Cameron
2018-11-20 13:53 ` Mike Rapoport
2018-11-14 22:49 ` [PATCH 6/7] acpi: Create subtable parsing infrastructure Keith Busch
2018-11-19 9:58 ` Rafael J. Wysocki
2018-11-19 18:36 ` Keith Busch
2018-11-14 22:49 ` [PATCH 7/7] acpi/hmat: Parse and report heterogeneous memory Keith Busch
2018-11-15 13:57 ` [PATCH 1/7] node: Link memory nodes to their compute nodes Matthew Wilcox
2018-11-15 14:59 ` Keith Busch
2018-11-15 17:50 ` Dan Williams
2018-11-19 3:04 ` Anshuman Khandual
2018-11-15 20:36 ` Matthew Wilcox
2018-11-16 18:32 ` Keith Busch
2018-11-19 3:15 ` Anshuman Khandual
2018-11-19 15:49 ` Keith Busch
2018-12-04 15:43 ` Aneesh Kumar K.V
2018-12-04 16:54 ` Keith Busch
2018-11-16 22:55 ` Dan Williams
2018-11-19 2:52 ` Anshuman Khandual
2018-11-19 2:46 ` Anshuman Khandual
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