Re: [RFC patch 15/15] LTTng timestamp x86

Bjorn Helgaas
2008-10-21T18:11:06Z

On Monday 20 October 2008 04:29:07 pm H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Linus Torvalds wrote:
> >
> > But it's not going to solve the "hey, I have 512 CPU's, they are all on
> > different boards, and no, they are _not_ synchronized to one global
> > clock!".
> >
> > That's why I'd suggest making _purely_ local time, and then aiming for
> > something NTP-like. But maybe there are better solutions out there.
>
> At the same time, it would definitely be nice to encourage vendors of
> large SMP systems to provide a common root crystal (frequency standard)
> for a single SMP domain. Preferrably a really good one, TCXO or better.

A single root crystal is nice for us software guys. But it often
also turns into a single point of failure, which the hardware guys
are always trying to eliminate. So I think multiple crystals are
inevitable for the really large machines.

Bjorn