[dpdk-dev] [PATCH] vhost: optimize vhost memcpy

[Zhihong Wang]

This patch optimizes Vhost performance for large packets when the
Mergeable Rx buffer feature is enabled. It introduces a dedicated
memcpy function for vhost enqueue/dequeue to replace rte_memcpy.

The reason is that rte_memcpy is for general cases, it handles
unaligned copies and make store aligned, it even makes load aligned
for micro architectures like Ivy Bridge. However alignment handling
comes at a price: It introduces extra load/store instructions.

Vhost memcpy is rather special: The copy is aligned, and remote,
and there is header write along which is also remote. In this case
the memcpy instruction stream should be simplified, to reduce extra
load/store, therefore reduce the probability of load/store buffer
full caused pipeline stall, to let the actual memcpy instructions
be issued and let H/W prefetcher goes to work as early as possible.

Performance gain is visible when packet size:

 1. Larger than 512 bytes on AVX/SSE platforms like Ivy Bridge

 2. Larger than 256 bytes on AVX2 platforms like Haswell

 3. Larger than 512 bytes on AVX512 platforms like Skylake

Up to 20% gain can be achieved by this patch for PVP traffic. The
test can also be conducted without NIC, by using loopback traffic
between Vhost and Virtio. For example, increase TXONLY_DEF_PACKET_LEN
to the requested packet size in testpmd.h, rebuild and start testpmd
in both host and guest, then "start" on one side and "start tx_first 32"
on the other.


Signed-off-by: Zhihong Wang <zhihong.wang at intel.com>
---
 lib/librte_vhost/virtio_net.c | 72 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 69 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lib/librte_vhost/virtio_net.c b/lib/librte_vhost/virtio_net.c
index 595f67c..cd6f21a 100644
--- a/lib/librte_vhost/virtio_net.c
+++ b/lib/librte_vhost/virtio_net.c
@@ -50,6 +50,72 @@
 #define MAX_PKT_BURST 32
 #define VHOST_LOG_PAGE	4096
 
+/**
+ * This function is used to for vhost memcpy, to replace rte_memcpy.
+ * The reason is that rte_memcpy is for general cases, where vhost
+ * memcpy is a rather special case: The copy is aligned, and remote,
+ * and there is header write along which is also remote. In this case
+ * the memcpy instruction stream should be simplified to reduce extra
+ * load/store, therefore reduce the probability of load/store buffer
+ * full caused pipeline stall, to let the actual memcpy instructions
+ * be issued and let H/W prefetcher goes to work as early as possible.
+ */
+static inline void __attribute__((always_inline))
+vhost_memcpy(void *dst, const void *src, size_t n)
+{
+	/* Copy size <= 16 bytes */
+	if (n < 16) {
+		if (n & 0x01) {
+			*(uint8_t *)dst = *(const uint8_t *)src;
+			src = (const uint8_t *)src + 1;
+			dst = (uint8_t *)dst + 1;
+		}
+		if (n & 0x02) {
+			*(uint16_t *)dst = *(const uint16_t *)src;
+			src = (const uint16_t *)src + 1;
+			dst = (uint16_t *)dst + 1;
+		}
+		if (n & 0x04) {
+			*(uint32_t *)dst = *(const uint32_t *)src;
+			src = (const uint32_t *)src + 1;
+			dst = (uint32_t *)dst + 1;
+		}
+		if (n & 0x08)
+			*(uint64_t *)dst = *(const uint64_t *)src;
+
+		return;
+	}
+
+	/* Copy 16 <= size <= 32 bytes */
+	if (n <= 32) {
+		rte_mov16((uint8_t *)dst, (const uint8_t *)src);
+		rte_mov16((uint8_t *)dst - 16 + n,
+				(const uint8_t *)src - 16 + n);
+
+		return;
+	}
+
+	/* Copy 32 < size <= 64 bytes */
+	if (n <= 64) {
+		rte_mov32((uint8_t *)dst, (const uint8_t *)src);
+		rte_mov32((uint8_t *)dst - 32 + n,
+				(const uint8_t *)src - 32 + n);
+
+		return;
+	}
+
+	/* Copy 64 bytes blocks */
+	for (; n >= 64; n -= 64) {
+		rte_mov64((uint8_t *)dst, (const uint8_t *)src);
+		dst = (uint8_t *)dst + 64;
+		src = (const uint8_t *)src + 64;
+	}
+
+	/* Copy whatever left */
+	rte_mov64((uint8_t *)dst - 64 + n,
+			(const uint8_t *)src - 64 + n);
+}
+
 static inline void __attribute__((always_inline))
 vhost_log_page(uint8_t *log_base, uint64_t page)
 {
@@ -246,7 +312,7 @@ copy_mbuf_to_desc(struct virtio_net *dev, struct vring_desc *descs,
 		}
 
 		cpy_len = RTE_MIN(desc_avail, mbuf_avail);
-		rte_memcpy((void *)((uintptr_t)(desc_addr + desc_offset)),
+		vhost_memcpy((void *)((uintptr_t)(desc_addr + desc_offset)),
 			rte_pktmbuf_mtod_offset(m, void *, mbuf_offset),
 			cpy_len);
 		vhost_log_write(dev, desc->addr + desc_offset, cpy_len);
@@ -522,7 +588,7 @@ copy_mbuf_to_desc_mergeable(struct virtio_net *dev, struct rte_mbuf *m,
 		}
 
 		cpy_len = RTE_MIN(desc_avail, mbuf_avail);
-		rte_memcpy((void *)((uintptr_t)(desc_addr + desc_offset)),
+		vhost_memcpy((void *)((uintptr_t)(desc_addr + desc_offset)),
 			rte_pktmbuf_mtod_offset(m, void *, mbuf_offset),
 			cpy_len);
 		vhost_log_write(dev, buf_vec[vec_idx].buf_addr + desc_offset,
@@ -856,7 +922,7 @@ copy_desc_to_mbuf(struct virtio_net *dev, struct vring_desc *descs,
 			 */
 			mbuf_avail = cpy_len;
 		} else {
-			rte_memcpy(rte_pktmbuf_mtod_offset(cur, void *,
+			vhost_memcpy(rte_pktmbuf_mtod_offset(cur, void *,
 							   mbuf_offset),
 				(void *)((uintptr_t)(desc_addr + desc_offset)),
 				cpy_len);
-- 
2.7.4