WARNING - OLD ARCHIVES

This is an archived copy of the Xen.org mailing list, which we have preserved to ensure that existing links to archives are not broken. The live archive, which contains the latest emails, can be found at http://lists.xen.org/
   
 
 
Xen 
 
Home Products Support Community News
 
   
 

xen-devel

Re: [xen-devel] System time monotonicity

To: "dan.magenheimer@xxxxxxxxxx" <dan.magenheimer@xxxxxxxxxx>, Ian Pratt <Ian.Pratt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Tian, Kevin" <kevin.tian@xxxxxxxxx>, "xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [xen-devel] System time monotonicity
From: Keir Fraser <keir.fraser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:41:43 +0100
Delivery-date: Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:50:56 -0700
Envelope-to: www-data@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <20080409082539515.00000004064@djm-pc>
List-help: <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=help>
List-id: Xen developer discussion <xen-devel.lists.xensource.com>
List-post: <mailto:xen-devel@lists.xensource.com>
List-subscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel>, <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=subscribe>
List-unsubscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel>, <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=unsubscribe>
Sender: xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thread-index: AciZl4WQxEBTGAWKEd2fxQAWy6hiGQABBvOAABCRjTAAAOXDcAAXM6WgAANRGxAAARCZ3g==
Thread-topic: [xen-devel] System time monotonicity
User-agent: Microsoft-Entourage/11.4.0.080122
On 9/4/08 15:25, "Dan Magenheimer" <dan.magenheimer@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Let me clarify... unless my reading of the code is wrong, ALL hvm
> guests that rely on ANY (virtual) platform timer are UNKNOWINGLY
> relying on the physical TSCs.  Thus if the underlying physical
> system has unsynchronized TSCs, different vcpus in an SMP HVM
> guest (or even the SAME vcpu when rescheduled on another pcpu)
> may find that consecutive reads of ANY (virtual) platform timer
> are unexpectedly non-monotonic, which violates the whole purpose
> of using a PLATFORM timer.

This is all true. The logic in vpt.c should be fixed to use Xen's concept of
system time and everything, guest TSC included, should be derived from that.

 -- Keir



_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel