Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261351AbTKDX3f (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Nov 2003 18:29:35 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262099AbTKDX3f (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Nov 2003 18:29:35 -0500 Received: from e5.ny.us.ibm.com ([32.97.182.105]:62704 "EHLO e5.ny.us.ibm.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261351AbTKDX3e (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Nov 2003 18:29:34 -0500 Subject: Re: get_cycles() on i386 From: john stultz To: Joel Becker Cc: lkml , Marcelo Tosatti In-Reply-To: <20031104232252.GG5792@ca-server1.us.oracle.com> References: <20031104232252.GG5792@ca-server1.us.oracle.com> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: Message-Id: <1067988463.11437.115.camel@cog.beaverton.ibm.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.2.4 Date: 04 Nov 2003 15:27:43 -0800 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1826 Lines: 55 On Tue, 2003-11-04 at 15:22, Joel Becker wrote: > Folks, > Certain distributions are building all of their SMP kernels > NUMA-aware. This is great, as the kernels support boxes like the x440 > with no trouble. However, this implicitly disables CONFIG_X86_TSC. > While that is good for NUMA systems, and fine from a kernel timing > standpoint, it also eliminates any generic access to the TSC via > get_cycles(). With CONFIG_X86_TSC not defined, get_cycles() always > returns 0. > Given that >95% of machines will not be x440s, this means that a > user of that kernel cannot access a high resolution timer via > get_cycles(). I don't want to have to litter my code with rdtscll() > when I managed to remove it! > The proposed patch is trivial. If the system has a TSC, it is > available get_cycles(). This makes no change to the other parts of the > kernel protected by CONFIG_X86_TSC. CONFIG_X86_TSC be the devil. Personally, I'd much prefer dropping the compile time option and using dynamic detection. Something like (not recently tested and i believe against 2.5.something, but you get the idea): diff -Nru a/include/asm-i386/timex.h b/include/asm-i386/timex.h --- a/include/asm-i386/timex.h Mon Feb 24 21:09:32 2003 +++ b/include/asm-i386/timex.h Mon Feb 24 21:09:32 2003 @@ -40,14 +40,10 @@ static inline cycles_t get_cycles (void) { -#ifndef CONFIG_X86_TSC - return 0; -#else - unsigned long long ret; - - rdtscll(ret); + unsigned long long ret = 0; + if(cpu_has_tsc) + rdtscll(ret); return ret; -#endif } extern unsigned long cpu_khz; thanks -john - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/