Merge branch 'for-3.11' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tj/wq

Pull workqueue changes from Tejun Heo:
 "Surprisingly, Lai and I didn't break too many things implementing
  custom pools and stuff last time around and there aren't any follow-up
  changes necessary at this point.

  The only change in this pull request is Viresh's patches to make some
  per-cpu workqueues to behave as unbound workqueues dependent on a boot
  param whose default can be configured via a config option.  This leads
  to higher processing overhead / lower bandwidth as more work items are
  bounced across CPUs; however, it can lead to noticeable powersave in
  certain configurations - ~10% w/ idlish constant workload on a
  big.LITTLE configuration according to Viresh.

  This is because per-cpu workqueues interfere with how the scheduler
  perceives whether or not each CPU is idle by forcing pinned tasks on
  them, which makes the scheduler's power-aware scheduling decisions
  less effective.

  Its effectiveness is likely less pronounced on homogenous
  configurations and this type of optimization can probably be made
  automatic; however, the changes are pretty minimal and the affected
  workqueues are clearly marked, so it's an easy gain for some
  configurations for the time being with pretty unintrusive changes."

* 'for-3.11' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tj/wq:
  fbcon: queue work on power efficient wq
  block: queue work on power efficient wq
  PHYLIB: queue work on system_power_efficient_wq
  workqueue: Add system wide power_efficient workqueues
  workqueues: Introduce new flag WQ_POWER_EFFICIENT for power oriented workqueues

1 files changed, 35 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/include/linux/workqueue.h b/include/linux/workqueue.h
index 623488fdc1f..a9f4119c7e2 100644
--- a/include/linux/workqueue.h
+++ b/include/linux/workqueue.h
@@ -303,6 +303,33 @@ enum {
 	WQ_CPU_INTENSIVE	= 1 << 5, /* cpu instensive workqueue */
 	WQ_SYSFS		= 1 << 6, /* visible in sysfs, see wq_sysfs_register() */
 
+	/*
+	 * Per-cpu workqueues are generally preferred because they tend to
+	 * show better performance thanks to cache locality.  Per-cpu
+	 * workqueues exclude the scheduler from choosing the CPU to
+	 * execute the worker threads, which has an unfortunate side effect
+	 * of increasing power consumption.
+	 *
+	 * The scheduler considers a CPU idle if it doesn't have any task
+	 * to execute and tries to keep idle cores idle to conserve power;
+	 * however, for example, a per-cpu work item scheduled from an
+	 * interrupt handler on an idle CPU will force the scheduler to
+	 * excute the work item on that CPU breaking the idleness, which in
+	 * turn may lead to more scheduling choices which are sub-optimal
+	 * in terms of power consumption.
+	 *
+	 * Workqueues marked with WQ_POWER_EFFICIENT are per-cpu by default
+	 * but become unbound if workqueue.power_efficient kernel param is
+	 * specified.  Per-cpu workqueues which are identified to
+	 * contribute significantly to power-consumption are identified and
+	 * marked with this flag and enabling the power_efficient mode
+	 * leads to noticeable power saving at the cost of small
+	 * performance disadvantage.
+	 *
+	 * http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1480396
+	 */
+	WQ_POWER_EFFICIENT	= 1 << 7,
+
 	__WQ_DRAINING		= 1 << 16, /* internal: workqueue is draining */
 	__WQ_ORDERED		= 1 << 17, /* internal: workqueue is ordered */
 
@@ -333,11 +360,19 @@ enum {
  *
  * system_freezable_wq is equivalent to system_wq except that it's
  * freezable.
+ *
+ * *_power_efficient_wq are inclined towards saving power and converted
+ * into WQ_UNBOUND variants if 'wq_power_efficient' is enabled; otherwise,
+ * they are same as their non-power-efficient counterparts - e.g.
+ * system_power_efficient_wq is identical to system_wq if
+ * 'wq_power_efficient' is disabled.  See WQ_POWER_EFFICIENT for more info.
  */
 extern struct workqueue_struct *system_wq;
 extern struct workqueue_struct *system_long_wq;
 extern struct workqueue_struct *system_unbound_wq;
 extern struct workqueue_struct *system_freezable_wq;
+extern struct workqueue_struct *system_power_efficient_wq;
+extern struct workqueue_struct *system_freezable_power_efficient_wq;
 
 static inline struct workqueue_struct * __deprecated __system_nrt_wq(void)
 {