[PATCH v2 00/15] Make SMP timers standalone

[Russell King - ARM Linux]

On Thu, Jan 05, 2012 at 11:19:32AM +0000, Marc Zyngier wrote:
> Global timer is still present, configured and enabled. The kernel just
> happens to select TWD as a better timer. Should TWD be turned off,
> gp_timer will be selected again.

And at that point, the core time keeping code will find a local timer
clock event structure and expect it's broadcast method to be implemented
and working, as I described in my initial reply.

> This is also what happens with the current implementation, and my
> patches don't change that.

Yes they do, because they omit the broadcast method.

Look, local timers *are* special.  They're not the same as global timers.
They're treated differently.  Ripping out the local timer setup stuff
from the SMP code is not the right solution, especially when we've
already got a separation of the local timer core from the hardware
implementation.