SLUB: Alternate fast paths using cmpxchg_local

Provide an alternate implementation of the SLUB fast paths for alloc
and free using cmpxchg_local. The cmpxchg_local fast path is selected
for arches that have CONFIG_FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL set. An arch should only
set CONFIG_FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL if the cmpxchg_local is faster than an
interrupt enable/disable sequence. This is known to be true for both
x86 platforms so set FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL for both arches.

Currently another requirement for the fastpath is that the kernel is
compiled without preemption. The restriction will go away with the
introduction of a new per cpu allocator and new per cpu operations.

The advantages of a cmpxchg_local based fast path are:

1. Potentially lower cycle count (30%-60% faster)

2. There is no need to disable and enable interrupts on the fast path.
   Currently interrupts have to be disabled and enabled on every
   slab operation. This is likely avoiding a significant percentage
   of interrupt off / on sequences in the kernel.

3. The disposal of freed slabs can occur with interrupts enabled.

The alternate path is realized using #ifdef's. Several attempts to do the
same with macros and inline functions resulted in a mess (in particular due
to the strange way that local_interrupt_save() handles its argument and due
to the need to define macros/functions that sometimes disable interrupts
and sometimes do something else).

[clameter: Stripped preempt bits and disabled fastpath if preempt is enabled]
Signed-off-by: Christoph Lameter <clameter@sgi.com>
Reviewed-by: Pekka Enberg <penberg@cs.helsinki.fi>
Cc: <linux-arch@vger.kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 4 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/arch/x86/Kconfig b/arch/x86/Kconfig
index c95482b..9d0aced 100644
--- a/arch/x86/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/x86/Kconfig
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ config HAVE_LATENCYTOP_SUPPORT
 config SEMAPHORE_SLEEPERS
 	def_bool y
 
+config FAST_CMPXCHG_LOCAL
+	bool
+	default y
+
 config MMU
 	def_bool y