The problem: On -RT, an emulated LAPIC timer instances has the following path: 1) hard interrupt 2) ksoftirqd is scheduled 3) ksoftirqd wakes up vcpu thread 4) vcpu thread is scheduled This extra context switch introduces unnecessary latency in the LAPIC path for a KVM guest. The solution: Allow waking up vcpu thread from hardirq context, thus avoiding the need for ksoftirqd to be scheduled. Normal waitqueues make use of spinlocks, which on -RT are sleepable locks. Therefore, waking up a waitqueue waiter involves locking a sleeping lock, which is not allowed from hard interrupt context. cyclictest command line: # cyclictest -m -n -q -p99 -l 1000000 -h60 -D 1m This patch reduces the average latency in my tests from 14us to 11us. v2: improve changelog (Rik van Riel) -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kvm" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
