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Copyright by William Lloyd Bircher 2010 - The Laboratory for ...

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improvement <strong>for</strong> low idle core frequencies. This is caused <strong>by</strong> idle cores remaining at a<br />

high frequency following a transition from active to idle.<br />

Per<strong>for</strong>mance<br />

100%<br />

95%<br />

90%<br />

85%<br />

80%<br />

75%<br />

70%<br />

65%<br />

60%<br />

200 700 1200<br />

Idle Core Frequency (MHz)<br />

1700 2200<br />

Figure 6.1 Direct and Indirect Per<strong>for</strong>mance Impact<br />

6.1.4 Indirect Per<strong>for</strong>mance Effects<br />

FreqB<br />

<strong>The</strong> amount of indirect per<strong>for</strong>mance loss is mostly dependent on the following three<br />

factors: Idle core frequency, OS p-state transition characteristics, and OS scheduling<br />

characteristics. <strong>The</strong> probe latency (time to respond to probe) is largely independent of<br />

idle core frequency above the “breakover” frequency (FreqB). Below FreqB the<br />

per<strong>for</strong>mance drops rapidly at an approximately linear rate. This can be seen in Figure 6.1<br />

as the dashed light line. <strong>The</strong> value of FreqB is primarily dependent on the inherent probe<br />

latency of the processor and the number of active and idle cores. Increasing the active<br />

core frequency increases the demand <strong>for</strong> probes and there<strong>for</strong>e increases FreqB. Increasing<br />

107<br />

crafty-fixed<br />

equake-fixed<br />

equake<br />

crafty

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