Q: sched_clock() vs. clocksource, how to implement correctly
Johannes Stezenbach
js at sig21.net
Fri Apr 23 11:09:17 EDT 2010
Hi,
I'm trying to figure out how to correctly implement sched_clock()
for an ARM board. However, looking at existing implementations
leaves me rather confused.
E.g. arch/arm/mach-u300/timer.c has
static cycle_t u300_get_cycles(struct clocksource *cs)
{
return (cycles_t) readl(U300_TIMER_APP_VBASE + U300_TIMER_APP_GPT2CC);
}
static struct clocksource clocksource_u300_1mhz = {
.name = "GPT2",
.rating = 300, /* Reasonably fast and accurate clock source */
.read = u300_get_cycles,
.mask = CLOCKSOURCE_MASK(32), /* 32 bits */
/* 22 calculated using the algorithm in arch/mips/kernel/time.c */
.shift = 22,
.flags = CLOCK_SOURCE_IS_CONTINUOUS,
};
unsigned long long notrace sched_clock(void)
{
return clocksource_cyc2ns(clocksource_u300_1mhz.read(
&clocksource_u300_1mhz),
clocksource_u300_1mhz.mult,
clocksource_u300_1mhz.shift);
}
Thus, sched_clock() is based on a 1MHz 32bit counter which wraps
after about 71 minutes. There are a few similar sched_clock()
implementations in the tree.
Questions:
- Isn't sched_clock() supposed to be extended to 64bit so
that it practically never wraps?
(old implementations use cnt32_to_63())
- What would be the effect on scheduling when sched_clock() wraps?
- What is the effect of the sched_clock() frequency on scheduling?
Is there a benefit from setting the freq as high as possible?
- Is struct timecounter + struct cyclecounter + timecounter_read()
designated way to implement sched_clock() with a 32bit hw counter?
arch/microblaze/kernel/timer.c seems to be the only user
of timecounter/cyclecounter in arch/, but I don't get what it does.
Or is it better to stick with cnt32_to_63()?
- Also regarding the clocksource.shift value, I found
http://lkml.org/lkml/2008/5/8/270 and it seems to suggest
to use a low shift value, whereas arch/mips/kernel/time.c
seems to result in a large one. Is the posting correct?
Thanks,
Johannes
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