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Date:   Wed, 24 Nov 2010 11:34:05 +0000
From:   Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>
To:     Kevin Cernekee <cernekee@gmail.com>
Cc:     linux-mips@linux-mips.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 6/7] MIPS: Fix CP0 COUNTER clockevent race
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On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 10:26:44AM -0800, Kevin Cernekee wrote:

> write_c0_compare(read_c0_count());
> 
> Even if the counter doesn't increment during execution, this might not
> generate an interrupt until the counter wraps around.  The CPU may
> perform the comparison each time CP0 COUNT increments, not when CP0
> COMPARE is written.
> 
> If mips_next_event() is called with a very small delta, and CP0 COUNT
> increments during the calculation of "cnt += delta", it is possible
> that CP0 COMPARE will be written with the current value of CP0 COUNT.
> If this is detected, the function should return -ETIME, to indicate
> that the interrupt might not have actually gotten scheduled.

Good catch - though on real hardware it should be theoretical as the
minimum timer interval is 300ns.  So it should only be trigerable on
a very slow system like a hardware emulator or maybe if a software
emulator like qemu gets rescheduled between the update and the read-back.

Applied,

  Ralf