Linux: Tuning The Kernel With A Genetic Algorithm

Jake Moilanen provided a series of four patches against the 2.6.9 Linux kernel [story] that introduce a simple genetic algorithm used for automatic tuning. The patches update the anticipatory IO scheduler [story] and the zaphod CPU scheduler [story] to both use the new in-kernel library, theoretically allowing them to automatically tune themselves for the best possible performance for any given workload. Jake says, “using these patches, there are small gains (1-3%) in Unixbench & SpecJBB. I am hoping a scheduler guru will able to rework them to give higher gains.”