[RFC PATCH v3 3/4] arm64:thunder: Add initial dts for Cavium's Thunder SoC in 2 Node topology.

[Arnd Bergmann]

On Wednesday 07 January 2015 12:37:51 Ganapatrao Kulkarni wrote:
> Hi Arnd,
> 
> On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 1:32 AM, Arnd Bergmann <arnd at arndb.de> wrote:
> > On Tuesday 06 January 2015 15:04:26 Ganapatrao Kulkarni wrote:
> >> On Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 2:47 AM, Arnd Bergmann <arnd at arndb.de> wrote:
> >> > On Wednesday 31 December 2014 13:03:27 Ganapatrao Kulkarni wrote:
> >> >> +             cpu at 00f {
> >> >> +                     device_type = "cpu";
> >> >> +                     compatible = "cavium,thunder", "arm,armv8";
> >> >> +                     reg = <0x0 0x00f>;
> >> >> +                     enable-method = "psci";
> >> >> +                     arm,associativity = <0 0 0x00f>;
> >> >> +             };
> >> >> +             cpu at 100 {
> >> >> +                     device_type = "cpu";
> >> >> +                     compatible = "cavium,thunder", "arm,armv8";
> >> >> +                     reg = <0x0 0x100>;
> >> >> +                     enable-method = "psci";
> >> >> +                     arm,associativity = <0 0 0x100>;
> >> >> +             };
> >> >
> >> > What is the 0x100 offset in the last-level topology field? Does this have
> >> > no significance to topology at all? I would expect that to be something
> >> > like cluster number that is relevant to caching and should be represented
> >> > as a separate level.
> >>
> >> i did not understand, can you please explain little more about "
> >> should be represented as a separate level."
> >> at present, i have put the hwid of a cpu.
> >
> > From what I undertand, the hwid of the CPU contains the "cluster" number in
> > this bit position, so you typically have a shared L2 or L3 cache between
> > all cores within a cluster, but separate caches in other clusters.
> >
> > If this is the case, there will be a measurable difference in performance
> > between two processes sharing memory when running on the same cluster,
> > or when running on different clusters on the same socket. If the
> > performance difference is relevant, it should be described as a separate
> > level in the associativity property.
> you mean, the associativity as array of  <board> <socket> <cluster>

No, that would leave out the core number, which is required to identify
the individual thread. I meant adding an extra level such as

<board> <socket> <cluster> <core>

A lot of machines will leave out the <board> number because they are
built with SoCs that don't have a long-distance coherency protocol.

	Arnd