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xen-devel
Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH] SVM: enables TSC scaling ratio support for SVM
Hi Dan,
I tested it by migrating between systems with TSC and without TSC,
mainly using a Linux guest VM.
I might have missed your point. But what is offset1 in your formula? My
understanding is that hvm_get_guest_tsc() returns a TSC value guests are
supposed to use. So when guest_tsc is set, we can re-calculate
offset=hvm_get_guest_tsc() - host_tsc * ratio. This is how current Xen
is implemented. Also, as long as host_tsc doesn't go backwards (i.e.
TSC_RELIABLE), host_tsc * ratio+offset should be reliable. Are you
concerned that cpu_khz might be (slightly) different on different cores?
This feature is only available under SVM mode. HVM guests won't be able
to see it in CPUID. PV guests shouldn't be able to change the value of
this MSR.
Thanks,
-Wei
On 05/27/2011 03:41 PM, Dan Magenheimer wrote:
From: Wei Huang [mailto:wei.huang2@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2011 10:35 AM
To: xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; Keir Fraser
Subject: [Xen-devel] [PATCH] SVM: enables TSC scaling ratio support for
SVM
Future AMD CPUs support TSC scaling. It allows guests to have a
different TSC frequency from host system using this formula: guest_tsc
=
host_tsc * tsc_ratio + vmcb_offset. The tsc_ratio is a 64bit MSR
contains a fixed-point number in 8.32 format (8 bits for integer part
and 32bits for fractional part). For instance 0x00000003_80000000 means
tsc_ratio=3.5.
This patch enables TSC scaling ratio for SVM. With it, guest VMs don't
need take #VMEXIT to calculate a translated TSC value when it is
running
under TSC emulation mode. This can SUBSTANTIALLY reduce the rdtsc
overhead.
Signed-off-by: Wei Huang<wei.huang2@xxxxxxx>
Has this patch been tested across save/restore and migration,
especially between machines with and without the feature and
especially across many migrations where each physical
machine has a different tsc_ratio?
ISTR that this feature does not really do a generic adjustment
so may mis-scale time that has been accrued on one or more
previous physical machines. In other words, I think the problem
is that it does
(host_tsc * tsc_ratio) + offset
and not
((host_tsc + offset1) * tsc_ratio) + offset2
This can be fixed if you trust cpu_khz to be precise on all
machines, but I don't think it is sufficiently precise to
guarantee that time never goes backwards in a guest (though
that may be fixable too). If time DOES go backwards and
the guest detects it, it may switch to a much slower
timer mechanism which could be worse than trapping
rdtsc.
All of this is from vague recollection... if it is all fully
tested across all cases (and sufficient testing proves that
time never goes backwards), consider this just noting a concern.
Also, is this feature visible from an HVM guest kernel? Is
it visible from a PV guest cpuid (e.g. OS or app)?
Thanks,
Dan
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