Experimental Schedutil Patches Yield 30% Boost To Web Browser Benchmark On Linux

Google engineer Qais Yousef has posted a set of 16 patches for the "Schedutil" scheduler utilization code within the Linux kernel to better manage system response time. Schedutil is often used by default on many Linux distributions and with these patches a popular web browser benchmark can be as much as 30% faster with these kernel patches.

Qais Yousef posted the set of 16 patches on Tuesday as a new take on a patch series he posted last year to remove hardcoded margings within the CPUFreq scheduler code.

The patch cover letter to this new series [RFC PATCH 00/16] sched/fair/schedutil: Better manage system response time goes into the technical details on all of the low-level work involved for better managing the system response time within the Schedutil code.

For end-users the exciting aspect is the Speedometer web browser benchmark result shared:

Starting out at 352 runs per minute with the Speedometer scheduler benchmark and ending with these patch series and a ramp-up multiplier of four to yield a score of 456 runs per minute, a 29.5% boost. That was the only benchmark provided at this time.

If these patches move along and are on a trajectory for mainlining in the Linux kernel, it will be very interesting to test these patches with a more diverse set of workloads in looking at the power and performance.