linux-kernel - [PATCH] Skip tsc synchronization checks if CONSTANT

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Date:	Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:23:47 -0700
From:	Alok Kataria <akataria@...are.com>
To:	Andi Kleen <andi@...stfloor.org>
Cc:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	the arch/x86 maintainers <x86@...nel.org>,
	Daniel Hecht <dhecht@...are.com>
Subject: [PATCH] Skip tsc synchronization checks if CONSTANT_TSC bit is set.

Skip tsc synchronization checks if CONSTANT_TSC bit is set.

From: Alok N Kataria <akataria@...are.com>

TSC synchronization checks between CPU's bail out even if we see
a distortion of a single cycle. This makes the TSC mostly unsuable
in a virtualized environment.

The CONSTANT_TSC bit tells us if the hardware exports a constant TSC,
we can use this bit to trust the hardware and skip the TSC sync checks
at bootup.

We also force set the CONSTANT_TSC capability bit if we are running on
VMware, since the VMware hypervisor exports a constant TSC to the guest.

Signed-off-by: Alok N Kataria <akataria@...are.com>
Cc: Andi Kleen <andi@...stfloor.org>
---

 arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c |    1 +
 arch/x86/kernel/tsc_sync.c   |    8 +++++++-
 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletions(-)


diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c b/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c
index a48cb0e..720b583 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/cpu/common.c
@@ -452,6 +452,7 @@ void __cpuinit detect_hypervisor_vendor(struct cpuinfo_x86 *c)
 {
 	if (vmware_platform()) {
 		c->x86_hyper_vendor = X86_HYPER_VENDOR_VMWARE;
+		set_cpu_cap(c, X86_FEATURE_CONSTANT_TSC);
 	} else {
 		c->x86_hyper_vendor = X86_HYPER_VENDOR_NONE;
 	}
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/tsc_sync.c b/arch/x86/kernel/tsc_sync.c
index 9ffb01c..c0c89b7 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/tsc_sync.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/tsc_sync.c
@@ -108,6 +108,12 @@ void __cpuinit check_tsc_sync_source(int cpu)
 	if (unsynchronized_tsc())
 		return;
 
+	if (boot_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_CONSTANT_TSC)) {
+		printk(KERN_INFO
+		       "Skipping synchronization checks as TSC is constant.\n");
+		return;
+	}
+		
 	printk(KERN_INFO "checking TSC synchronization [CPU#%d -> CPU#%d]:",
 			  smp_processor_id(), cpu);
 
@@ -161,7 +167,7 @@ void __cpuinit check_tsc_sync_target(void)
 {
 	int cpus = 2;
 
-	if (unsynchronized_tsc())
+	if (unsynchronized_tsc() || boot_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_CONSTANT_TSC))
 		return;
 
 	/*


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