AmpereOne Performance On Linux 6.11 Kernel, 4K vs. 64K Page Size Comparison

Continuing on with the AmpereOne performance benchmarking while having the AmpereOne A192-32X in the lab within a Supermicro ARS-211M-NR R13SPD server, the next set of benchmarks is looking at the performance when using the near-final Linux 6.11 kernel. Additionally, quantifying the performance impact of using the ARM64 64K page size kernel as an alternative to the default 4K page size.

The focus on this article is two fold. First is looking at any performance benefits in using Linux 6.11 compared to Linux 6.8 as used in the prior benchmarks with it being the default of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Secondly is helping to quantify the performance impact of using a 4K versus 64K page size on AmpereOne for server and HPC workloads.

Linux 6.11 is working its way toward a stable kernel release in mid-September. Linux 6.11 is notable in that it's the kernel version to be used by the upcoming Ubuntu 24.10 release, Fedora Workstation 41 should be on it for its initial kernel version, and other upcoming Linux distribution releases. Plus with Linux 6.12 likely to be this year's Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel version, getting some performance numbers on v6.11 is close and with only having this AmpereOne server in the lab for a few weeks. So these benchmarks of AmpereOne on Linux 6.11 are a bit forward-looking for seeing what kernel performance benefits there may be moving into the future.

The other focus on this article was looking at the 4K vs. 64K kernel page size on AmpereOne. As shown in the past, a 64K page size on AArch64 can really help some server and AI/HPC workloads. The prior AmpereOne benchmarks were all done on a 64K page size for best performance and Ampere Computing shipped the review server already with a 64K page size kernel build. This article is comparing the default 4K page size used on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and other Linux distributions for the performance benefits to using a 64K page size albeit with increased memory use.

The Ubuntu Kernel Mainline PPA was used for the ARM64 kernel builds for this comparison. From the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA there is both the stock (4K) and 64K ARM64 kernel builds for those interested. Typically I recommend the ARM64 64K page size kernel for higher-end ARM servers and workstations with plenty of RAM and subject to running many demanding workloads. The benchmarks in this review will help quantify the benefits for AmpereOne processors.

The Linux 6.8 kernel as shipped by Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on a clean Ubuntu Server install was tested following by the Linux 6.11 Git kernels as of 4 September from the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA. For this round of testing all of the Ubuntu / Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA defaults were tested, including the default ACPI CPPC CPUFreq ondemand configuration and other defaults except for the kernel versions / page size as noted.