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author | Eric Biggers <ebiggers@google.com> | 2025-03-04 23:49:54 +0300 |
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committer | Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org> | 2025-03-06 14:44:09 +0300 |
commit | d02198550423a0b695e7a24ec77153209ad45b09 (patch) | |
tree | 07e0a875275bfa2dbe066950a75fa5017c9676e0 /tools/testing/selftests/bpf/prog_tests/access_variable_array.c | |
parent | 69a2fdf446049ae31be4a14a0cf16f2f18f09b6c (diff) | |
download | linux-d02198550423a0b695e7a24ec77153209ad45b09.tar.xz |
x86/fpu: Improve crypto performance by making kernel-mode FPU reliably usable in softirqs
Background:
===========
Currently kernel-mode FPU is not always usable in softirq context on
x86, since softirqs can nest inside a kernel-mode FPU section in task
context, and nested use of kernel-mode FPU is not supported.
Therefore, x86 SIMD-optimized code that can be called in softirq context
has to sometimes fall back to non-SIMD code. There are two options for
the fallback, both of which are pretty terrible:
(a) Use a scalar fallback. This can be 10-100x slower than vectorized
code because it cannot use specialized instructions like AES, SHA,
or carryless multiplication.
(b) Execute the request asynchronously using a kworker. In other
words, use the "crypto SIMD helper" in crypto/simd.c.
Currently most of the x86 en/decryption code (skcipher and aead
algorithms) uses option (b), since this avoids the slow scalar fallback
and it is easier to wire up. But option (b) is still really bad for its
own reasons:
- Punting the request to a kworker is bad for performance too.
- It forces the algorithm to be marked as asynchronous
(CRYPTO_ALG_ASYNC), preventing it from being used by crypto API
users who request a synchronous algorithm. That's another huge
performance problem, which is especially unfortunate for users who
don't even do en/decryption in softirq context.
- It makes all en/decryption operations take a detour through
crypto/simd.c. That involves additional checks and an additional
indirect call, which slow down en/decryption for *everyone*.
Fortunately, the skcipher and aead APIs are only usable in task and
softirq context in the first place. Thus, if kernel-mode FPU were to be
reliably usable in softirq context, no fallback would be needed.
Indeed, other architectures such as arm, arm64, and riscv have already
done this.
Changes implemented:
====================
Therefore, this patch updates x86 accordingly to reliably support
kernel-mode FPU in softirqs.
This is done by just disabling softirq processing in kernel-mode FPU
sections (when hardirqs are not already disabled), as that prevents the
nesting that was problematic.
This will delay some softirqs slightly, but only ones that would have
otherwise been nested inside a task context kernel-mode FPU section.
Any such softirqs would have taken the slow fallback path before if they
tried to do any en/decryption. Now these softirqs will just run at the
end of the task context kernel-mode FPU section (since local_bh_enable()
runs pending softirqs) and will no longer take the slow fallback path.
Alternatives considered:
========================
- Make kernel-mode FPU sections fully preemptible. This would require
growing task_struct by another struct fpstate which is more than 2K.
- Make softirqs save/restore the kernel-mode FPU state to a per-CPU
struct fpstate when nested use is detected. Somewhat interesting, but
seems unnecessary when a simpler solution exists.
Performance results:
====================
I did some benchmarks with AES-XTS encryption of 16-byte messages (which is
unrealistically small, but this makes it easier to see the overhead of
kernel-mode FPU...). The baseline was 384 MB/s. Removing the use of
crypto/simd.c, which this work makes possible, increases it to 487 MB/s,
a +27% improvement in throughput.
CPU was AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5). No debugging options were enabled.
[ mingo: Prettified the changelog and added performance results. ]
Signed-off-by: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
Cc: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com>
Cc: Uros Bizjak <ubizjak@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250304204954.3901-1-ebiggers@kernel.org
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