[PATCH] sched: fair: Improve PELT decay_load calculation comments

* [PATCH] sched: fair: Improve PELT decay_load calculation comments
@ 2017-03-10 20:23 Joel Fernandes
  2017-03-22 14:16 ` Peter Zijlstra
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 5+ messages in thread
From: Joel Fernandes @ 2017-03-10 20:23 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: linux-kernel
  Cc: Joel Fernandes, Paul Turner, Dietmar Eggemann, Juri Lelli,
	Patrick Bellasi, Peter Zijlstra, Ingo Molnar

The PELT decay_load comments are a bit confusing, first of all
the 1/2^N should be (1/2)^N so that the reader doesn't get confused.
Secondly, the y^N splitting into a 2-part decay factor deserves
a better explanation. This patch improves the comments.

Cc: Paul Turner <pjt@google.com>
Cc: Dietmar Eggemann <dietmar.eggemann@arm.com>
Cc: Juri Lelli <Juri.Lelli@arm.com>
Cc: Patrick Bellasi <patrick.bellasi@arm.com>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes <joelaf@google.com>
---
 kernel/sched/fair.c | 14 +++++++++-----
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/sched/fair.c b/kernel/sched/fair.c
index 6559d197e08a..1e1f2d77751e 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/fair.c
+++ b/kernel/sched/fair.c
@@ -2761,11 +2761,15 @@ static __always_inline u64 decay_load(u64 val, u64 n)
 	local_n = n;
 
 	/*
-	 * As y^PERIOD = 1/2, we can combine
-	 *    y^n = 1/2^(n/PERIOD) * y^(n%PERIOD)
-	 * With a look-up table which covers y^n (n<PERIOD)
-	 *
-	 * To achieve constant time decay_load.
+	 * As y^PERIOD = 1/2, we can decay the load by 1/2
+	 * for n/PERIOD number of PERIOD sized instances. Then
+	 * we decay by the remaining windows in the final PERIOD,
+	 * that is n%PERIOD. In other words, the decay factor
+	 * y^N in terms of PERIOD becomes:
+	 *    y^n = (1/2)^(n/PERIOD) * y^(n%PERIOD).
+	 * Since now we only need to compute powers of y where
+	 * n < PERIOD, we use a look-up table for y^N (N<PERIOD).
+	 * This helps achieve constant time decay_load.
 	 */
 	if (unlikely(local_n >= LOAD_AVG_PERIOD)) {
 		val >>= local_n / LOAD_AVG_PERIOD;
-- 
2.12.0.246.ga2ecc84866-goog

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