Hello,

I have been playing with using Zephyr as UOS on top of Ubuntu as SOS, using the Industry scenario and launching the UOS with launch_zephyr.sh.

I created this small program to prove that Zephyr was not affected by what happened in the SOS: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/c3j9XwvrT6/ (with config https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/sPhwTRrRTZ/). The program simply calculates the number of primes below a number and prints the time spent.

Although the problem runs and I get output from the serial port, I found two problems:

1. gettimeofday is not returning good times, the elapsed time is ~20 times more than the real one. I see the same problem when using k_uptime_get and k_uptime_delta. It looks related to handling of the HW clock, but the pre-defined frequency (100) seems correct.

2. More importantly, I see that the time spent in the calculation varies when I do something CPU intensive on the SOS. For instance, if I run the same calculation on the SOS, I see that Zephyr is expending 5% more time in the calculation, which should not happen and defeats the purpose of this set-up.

ACRN version is:

HV version 1.4-unstable-2020-01-09 09:45:06-bcefd673 DBG (daily tag: acrn-2019w47.1-140000p) build by ubuntu
API version 1.0

Any ideas on what might be going on?

Thanks

Alfonso

Hi Alfonso,

 

I’m assuming you have been using the standard launch script (from /usr/share/acrn/samples/nuc/launch_zephyr.sh) to test your Zephyr app. If so, can you try to use this script instead to see if it makes any difference? https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/rCjfYv3QV4/

 

I have not tried it yet with your app but it’s able to launch the Zephyr “Hello World! Acrn” app.

 

Thanks,

Geoffroy

 

 

From: VanCutsem, Geoffroy
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2020 4:18 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: RE: [acrn-users] Zephyr as UOS slows down when SOS is busy

 

Hi Alfonso,

 

My best guess as to what’s happening is that there is some contention between the Service VM and the Zephyr VM to use the cache, Zephyr would typically stay in cache but now that there is some heavy load in the Service VM, it may get evicted at times. This is where Cache Allocation Technology (CAT) can help further isolate the VMs, especially against so-called “noisy neighbours. Unfortunately, Kaby Lake does not support CAT. Here is more about CAT and how to use it with ACRN: https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/getting-started/rt_industry.html?#configure-cat

 

Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Alfonso Sanchez-Beato
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2020 1:09 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Zephyr as UOS slows down when SOS is busy

 

 

 

On Tue, Jan 21, 2020 at 1:07 PM Alfonso Sanchez-Beato <alfonso.sanchez-beato@...> wrote:

Hello,

 

I have been playing with using Zephyr as UOS on top of Ubuntu as SOS, using the Industry scenario and launching the UOS with launch_zephyr.sh.

 

I created this small program to prove that Zephyr was not affected by what happened in the SOS: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/c3j9XwvrT6/ (with config https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/sPhwTRrRTZ/). The program simply calculates the number of primes below a number and prints the time spent.

 

Although the problem runs and I get output from the serial port, I found two problems:

 

1. gettimeofday is not returning good times, the elapsed time is ~20 times more than the real one. I see the same problem when using k_uptime_get and k_uptime_delta. It looks related to handling of the HW clock, but the pre-defined frequency (100) seems correct.

 

2. More importantly, I see that the time spent in the calculation varies when I do something CPU intensive on the SOS. For instance, if I run the same calculation on the SOS, I see that Zephyr is expending 5% more time in the calculation, which should not happen and defeats the purpose of this set-up.

 

ACRN version is:

HV version 1.4-unstable-2020-01-09 09:45:06-bcefd673 DBG (daily tag: acrn-2019w47.1-140000p) build by ubuntu
API version 1.0

 

Any ideas on what might be going on?

 

I forgot to mention that I am testing on a NUC7i7DNH.

 

 

Thanks

Alfonso

 

Hi Geoffroy,

On Wed, Jan 22, 2020 at 9:32 AM Geoffroy Van Cutsem <geoffroy.vancutsem@...> wrote:

Hi Alfonso,

 

I’m assuming you have been using the standard launch script (from /usr/share/acrn/samples/nuc/launch_zephyr.sh) to test your Zephyr app. If so, can you try to use this script instead to see if it makes any difference? https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/rCjfYv3QV4/

 

I have not tried it yet with your app but it’s able to launch the Zephyr “Hello World! Acrn” app.

I have tried with the new script, and I think it helps a bit, although it

does not remove completely the increment in time when something is running

in the SOS. But it is a bit difficult to say tbh.

 

 

Thanks,

Geoffroy

Thanks

Alfonso

 

 

 

From: VanCutsem, Geoffroy
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2020 4:18 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: RE: [acrn-users] Zephyr as UOS slows down when SOS is busy

 

Hi Alfonso,

 

My best guess as to what’s happening is that there is some contention between the Service VM and the Zephyr VM to use the cache, Zephyr would typically stay in cache but now that there is some heavy load in the Service VM, it may get evicted at times. This is where Cache Allocation Technology (CAT) can help further isolate the VMs, especially against so-called “noisy neighbours. Unfortunately, Kaby Lake does not support CAT. Here is more about CAT and how to use it with ACRN: https://projectacrn.github.io/latest/getting-started/rt_industry.html?#configure-cat

 

Geoffroy

 

From: acrn-users@... <acrn-users@...> On Behalf Of Alfonso Sanchez-Beato
Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2020 1:09 PM
To: acrn-users@...
Subject: Re: [acrn-users] Zephyr as UOS slows down when SOS is busy

 

 

 

On Tue, Jan 21, 2020 at 1:07 PM Alfonso Sanchez-Beato <alfonso.sanchez-beato@...> wrote:

Hello,

 

I have been playing with using Zephyr as UOS on top of Ubuntu as SOS, using the Industry scenario and launching the UOS with launch_zephyr.sh.

 

I created this small program to prove that Zephyr was not affected by what happened in the SOS: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/c3j9XwvrT6/ (with config https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/sPhwTRrRTZ/). The program simply calculates the number of primes below a number and prints the time spent.

 

Although the problem runs and I get output from the serial port, I found two problems:

 

1. gettimeofday is not returning good times, the elapsed time is ~20 times more than the real one. I see the same problem when using k_uptime_get and k_uptime_delta. It looks related to handling of the HW clock, but the pre-defined frequency (100) seems correct.

 

2. More importantly, I see that the time spent in the calculation varies when I do something CPU intensive on the SOS. For instance, if I run the same calculation on the SOS, I see that Zephyr is expending 5% more time in the calculation, which should not happen and defeats the purpose of this set-up.

 

ACRN version is:

HV version 1.4-unstable-2020-01-09 09:45:06-bcefd673 DBG (daily tag: acrn-2019w47.1-140000p) build by ubuntu
API version 1.0

 

Any ideas on what might be going on?

 

I forgot to mention that I am testing on a NUC7i7DNH.

 

 

Thanks

Alfonso