Re: [Intel PMC TGPIO Driver 0/5] Add support for Intel PMC Time GPIO Driver with PHC interface changes to support additional H/W Features

Richard Cochran
2020-02-26T02:47:13Z

On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 03:37:07PM -0800, Christopher S. Hall wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 02, 2020 at 08:08:38PM -0800, Richard Cochran wrote:
> > The TGPIO input clock, the ART, is a free running counter, but you
> > want to support frequency adjustments. Use a timecounter cyclecounter
> > pair.
>
> I'm concerned about the complexity that the timecounter adds to
> the driver. Specifically, the complexity of dealing with any rate mismatches
> between the timecounter and the periodic output signal. The phase
> error between the output and timecounter needs to be zero.

If I understood correctly, the device's outputs are generated from a
non-adjustable counter. So, no matter what, you will have the problem
of changing the pulse period in concert with the user changing the
desired frequency.

> My counter-proposal would be to use the real-time clock as the basis of the
> device clock. This is fairly simple because the relation between ART and the
> realtime clock is known. When output is enabled any phase error between
> the realtime clock and the periodic output signal is accumulated in the
> SYS_OFFSET result.

I don't understand how you intend to do this...

> This leaves the PHC API behavior as it is currently and uses the frequency
> adjust API to adjust the output rate.
>
> > Let the user dial a periodic output signal in the normal way.
> >
> > Let the user change the frequency in the normal way, and during this
> > call, adjust the counter values accordingly.
>
> Yes to both of the above.

So, why then do you need this?

+#define PTP_EVENT_COUNT_TSTAMP2 \
+ _IOWR(PTP_CLK_MAGIC, 19, struct ptp_event_count_tstamp)

If you can make the device work with the existing user space API,

ioctl(fd, PTP_PEROUT_REQUEST2, ...);
while (1) {
clock_adjtimex(FD_TO_CLOCKID(fd), ...);
}

that would be ideal. But I will push back on anything like the
following.

ioctl(fd, PTP_PEROUT_REQUEST2, ...);
while (1) {
clock_adjtimex(FD_TO_CLOCKID(fd), ...);
ioctl(fd, PTP_EVENT_COUNT_TSTAMP, ...);
}

But maybe I misunderstood?

Thanks,
Richard