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Date:      Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:50:59 -0700
From:      Jeremy Chadwick <freebsd@jdc.parodius.com>
To:        Bryce <bryce@bryce.net>
Cc:        freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: SuperMicro i7 (UP) - very slow performance
Message-ID:  <20100923045059.GA29396@icarus.home.lan>
In-Reply-To: <da189ecd-c9ba-4b49-9f46-6ee4e3dfea56@g18g2000vbn.googlegroups.com>
References:  <AANLkTimRpatbjTcpdBT6EV1Jb2U3ake4me7YPxHhwO7K@mail.gmail.com> <mailpost.1285145047.2294223.42059.mailing.freebsd.stable@FreeBSD.cs.nctu.edu.tw> <da189ecd-c9ba-4b49-9f46-6ee4e3dfea56@g18g2000vbn.googlegroups.com>

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On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 05:54:46PM -0700, Bryce wrote:
> On Sep 22, 3:43 am, free...@jdc.parodius.com (Jeremy Chadwick) wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 03:30:33AM -0500, Adam Vande More wrote:
> > > On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 3:12 AM, Peter Jeremy <peterjer...@acm.org> wrote:
> >
> > > > I think something is badly wrong here.  That's less than 1/2 the speed
> > > > of my Athlon 4850e (2.5GHz) and only 60% more than my Atom N270.  None
> > > > of the other figures you posted look anomolous.  Are you sure the CPU
> > > > is actually running at full speed and you haven't done something like
> > > > disable the caches in BIOS?
> >
> > > FWIW:
> >
> > > FreeBSD galacticdominator.com 8.1-PRERELEASE FreeBSD 8.1-PRERELEASE #1: Sun
> > > Jun 20 21:05:37 CDT 2010
> > > a...@galacticdominator.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
> > > amd64
> > > CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU         870  @ 2.93GHz (2940.64-MHz K8-class
> > > CPU)
> >
> > > MD5 time trial. Digesting 100000 10000-byte blocks ... done
> > > Digest = 766a2bb5d24bddae466c572bcabca3ee
> > > Time = 2.012719 seconds
> > > Speed = 496840352.000000 bytes/second
> >
> > > vmstat
> > > -i
> >
> > > interrupt                          total
> > > rate
> >
> > > irq16: vgapci0+                 10720642         54
> > > irq18: fwohci0                         2          0
> > > irq23: ehci1                      623712          3
> > > cpu0: timer                    393496151       1996
> > > irq256: hdac0                    8063581         40
> > > irq257: re0                      4136265         20
> > > irq259: ahci1                    1925783          9
> > > cpu1: timer                    393494902       1996
> > > cpu6: timer                    393494606       1996
> > > cpu5: timer                    393494653       1996
> > > cpu7: timer                    393494701       1996
> > > cpu4: timer                    393494785       1996
> > > cpu3: timer                    393494732       1996
> > > cpu2: timer                    393494404       1996
> > > Total                         3173428919      16102
> >
> > > His interrupts seem high compared to this setup, but I don't what expected
> > > values should be.
> >
> > How are his interrupt rates "higher" than yours?  If you're focused on
> > the cpuX entries, don't be.
> >
> > To the OP:
> >
> > 1) I don't see how/why USB Legacy support would have anything to do with
> > your problem (meaning: you stated that things "improved a little" if you
> > disabled USB Legacy support in the BIOS, which makes no sense given what
> > that option does).
> 
> The machine runs *MUCH* slower if Legacy BIOS is not disabled.  Just
> booting up is excruciating, and takes forever.

I'm not sure what "Legacy BIOS" is (you mention it twice in your mail),
but I think it's just a typo for "Legacy USB" or "USB Legacy".

Regarding "the machine runs much slower", can you provide something as
simple as "md5 -t" both with the option enabled and with the option
disabled?  System boot time increasing due to this option wouldn't
surprise me; I've battled Supermicro in the past over USB-related issues
during or after BIOS POST (though they were specific to booting from USB
flash drives):

http://koitsu.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/supermicro-pdsmi-bios-bugs/
http://koitsu.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/supermicro-pdsmi-bios-bugs-finale/

I've run into other BIOS bugs as well:

http://koitsu.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/supermicro-x7sba-and-ecc-ram-part-1/
http://koitsu.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/supermicro-x7sba-and-ecc-ram-finale/

I hate defaulting to this kind of response, but I assume you're running
the latest available BIOS for your mainboard?

> > 2) There's been a discussion on -stable about FreeBSD incorrectly
> > determining different kinds of CPU characteristics on newer processors
> > like the i7, with HTT in use.  I can dig up the thread if you'd like.
> > It does include a patch.
> 
> Yes, I'd like that.  In case this helps:
> 
> kern.sched.topology_spec: <groups>
>  <group level="1" cache-level="0">
>   <cpu count="8" mask="0xff">0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7</cpu>
>   <children>
>    <group level="3" cache-level="2">
>     <cpu count="8" mask="0xff">0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7</cpu>
>     <children>
>      <group level="5" cache-level="1">
>       <cpu count="2" mask="0x3">0, 1</cpu>
>       <flags><flag name="THREAD">THREAD group</flag><flag
> name="SMT">SMT group</flag></flags>
>      </group>
>      <group level="5" cache-level="1">
>       <cpu count="2" mask="0xc">2, 3</cpu>
>       <flags><flag name="THREAD">THREAD group</flag><flag
> name="SMT">SMT group</flag></flags>
>      </group>
>      <group level="5" cache-level="1">
>       <cpu count="2" mask="0x30">4, 5</cpu>
>       <flags><flag name="THREAD">THREAD group</flag><flag
> name="SMT">SMT group</flag></flags>
>      </group>
>      <group level="5" cache-level="1">
>       <cpu count="2" mask="0xc0">6, 7</cpu>
>       <flags><flag name="THREAD">THREAD group</flag><flag
> name="SMT">SMT group</flag></flags>
>      </group>
>     </children>
>    </group>
>   </children>
>  </group>
> </groups>

Worth reading -- apparently you're not the only one.  Not sure if your
boards or setups are identical though:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2010-May/056591.html
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2010-May/056607.html
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2010-May/thread.html#56591

As for the Intel processor topology patch:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2010-September/058668.html
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2010-September/thread.html#58668

> > 3) Reset the BIOS settings to Factory Defaults ("Load Setup Defaults"
> > or the like), and then write down whatever you change, then post the
> > changes here.
> 
> After resetting BIOS, I make the following changes:
> 
> - Disable Legacy BIOS
> - Change drive controller from enhanced mode to AHCI
> 
> and for your #4,  the temp is almost always between 49-60 degrees C
> and the cpu freq is always 2801.
> 
> I am not running powerd as I saw odd behavior and wanted to get a know
> good before introducing other variables.

I think your core temperatures are fine -- they look about right for
Core i7 CPUs (a few Celsius on the high side, but that's going to vary
from environment to environment).

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                   jdc@parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.              PGP: 4BD6C0CB |




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