WARNING - OLD ARCHIVES

This is an archived copy of the Xen.org mailing list, which we have preserved to ensure that existing links to archives are not broken. The live archive, which contains the latest emails, can be found at http://lists.xen.org/
   
 
 
Xen 
 
Home Products Support Community News
 
   
 

xen-devel

[Xen-devel] Re: [PATCH] clocksource=tsc

To: "dan.magenheimer@xxxxxxxxxx" <dan.magenheimer@xxxxxxxxxx>, "Xen-Devel (E-mail)" <xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Xen-devel] Re: [PATCH] clocksource=tsc
From: Keir Fraser <keir.fraser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:24:06 +0100
Cc: Dave Winchell <dwinchell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Delivery-date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 02:24:31 -0700
Envelope-to: www-data@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <20080712153824937.00000080236@djm-pc>
List-help: <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=help>
List-id: Xen developer discussion <xen-devel.lists.xensource.com>
List-post: <mailto:xen-devel@lists.xensource.com>
List-subscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel>, <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=subscribe>
List-unsubscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel>, <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=unsubscribe>
Sender: xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thread-index: AcjkZ5sqwfzsRK8bRLOogZ+uDOy+agBK8Gg8
Thread-topic: [PATCH] clocksource=tsc
User-agent: Microsoft-Entourage/11.4.0.080122
I'm sympathetic to the patch, but it looks like an ugly hack right now. Most
of the clocksource_is_tsc special cases will fall away if you, e.g., have
platform_timer_stamp = stime_platform_stamp = local_tsc_stamp =
stime_local_stamp = 0; and provide a plt->read_counter() function; and
accept that for now you will unnecessarily take the platform-timer spinlock;
etc. Also it is platform timer 5, not 4!

Clean it up and it'll go in. Since it should clearly only affect behaviour
when the new clocksource is explicitly selected, I'll take this patch
further into 3.3 freeze than usual -- it's more important to me that it's
clean.

 Thanks,
 Keir

On 12/7/08 22:38, "Dan Magenheimer" <dan.magenheimer@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Attached patch adds clocksource=tsc boot option that
> uses TSC as clocksource.  This option should only be
> used on machines where TSC is known to be synchronized
> across all processors.  A future TODO is to dynamically
> determine if this is the case.
> 
> TSC may "beat" with another clocksource, resulting in
> cross-processor Xen system time skew.  This skew can
> be visible in PV guests and can appear as "time is stopped"
> in hvm guests.  On some systems, this patch can reduce skew
> by 30x or more.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Dan Magenheimer <dan.magenheimer@xxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> ===================================
> Thanks... for the memory
> I really could use more / My throughput's on the floor
> The balloon is flat / My swap disk's fat / I've OOM's in store
> Overcommitted so much
> (with apologies to the late great Bob Hope)



_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel