linux-kernel - Re: AMD Quad Core clock problem?

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Date:	Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:24:46 -0700
From:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
To:	Krzysztof Halasa <khc@...waw.pl>
CC:	Lennart Sorensen <lsorense@...lub.uwaterloo.ca>,
	Marc Perkel <mperkel@...oo.com>,
	Chris Snook <csnook@...hat.com>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: AMD Quad Core clock problem?

Krzysztof Halasa wrote:
> lsorense@...lub.uwaterloo.ca (Lennart Sorensen) writes:
> 
>> True, but usually they give you an option to turn it off in the BIOS to
>> make the system actually work with things like NTP.
>>
>> Maybe I should have said "Any system with spread spectrum enabled".
> 
> I haven't investigated those spread spectrums at all but sometimes
> there are options: "center" (the frequency is centered around the
> nominal value, I guess) and "below" (or something like that). If done
> correctly, "center" shouldn't have visible effect on NTP, should it?

It shouldn't really matter, since "below" produces a similar spectrum at 
a slightly lower frequency.

The main issue is how slow the frequency slew really is; typically the 
slew should well average out to zero over the timescale that NTP cares 
about.

> The other important question is "what frequency has spread spectrum
> enabled"? CPU (= TSC), HPET, RAM, something else?

In PCs, the TSC and RAM will be affected; the HPET, PMTMR and PIT are 
fed from the 14.31818 MHz timekeeping crystal which is generally *not* 
spread.

	-hpa
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