From: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
To: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>,
Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
Cc: kvm@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Paul Durrant <paul@xen.org>, David Woodhouse <dwmw@amazon.co.uk>,
Dongli Zhang <dongli.zhang@oracle.com>
Subject: [PATCH v9 17/21] KVM: x86: Simplify and comment kvm_get_time_scale()
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2026 15:54:55 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260810225500.869288-18-seanjc@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260810225500.869288-1-seanjc@google.com>
From: David Woodhouse <dwmw@amazon.co.uk>
The kvm_get_time_scale() function was entirely opaque. Add comments
explaining what it does: compute a fixed-point multiplier and shift for
converting TSC ticks to nanoseconds via pvclock_scale_delta().
Rename the local variables from the cryptic tps64/tps32/scaled64 to
base_hz_u64/base32/scaled_hz_u64 to make the code self-documenting.
The "tps32" name stood for "Ticks Per Second" but was misleading since
it held the shifted base frequency, not a tick count.
No functional change.
Signed-off-by: David Woodhouse <dwmw@amazon.co.uk>
Reviewed-by: Paul Durrant <paul@xen.org>
Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>
---
arch/x86/kvm/x86.c | 55 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------
1 file changed, 40 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
index 56c2fe11d866..7661c49ccaed 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/x86.c
@@ -938,32 +938,57 @@ static uint32_t div_frac(uint32_t dividend, uint32_t divisor)
return dividend;
}
-static void kvm_get_time_scale(uint64_t scaled_hz, uint64_t base_hz,
+static void kvm_get_time_scale(u64 scaled_hz, u64 base_hz,
s8 *pshift, u32 *pmultiplier)
{
- uint64_t scaled64;
- int32_t shift = 0;
- uint64_t tps64;
- uint32_t tps32;
+ u64 scaled_hz_u64 = scaled_hz;
+ s32 shift = 0;
+ u64 base_hz_u64;
+ u32 base32;
- tps64 = base_hz;
- scaled64 = scaled_hz;
- while (tps64 > scaled64*2 || tps64 & 0xffffffff00000000ULL) {
- tps64 >>= 1;
+ /*
+ * This function calculates a fixed-point multiplier and shift such
+ * that:
+ * time_ns = (tsc_cycles << shift) * multiplier >> 32
+ *
+ * Where tsc_cycles tick at base_hz, and time_ns should count at
+ * scaled_hz (typically NSEC_PER_SEC for a TSC→nanoseconds conversion).
+ *
+ * The multiplier is: (scaled_hz << 32) / base_hz, adjusted by shift
+ * to keep everything in range.
+ */
+
+ base_hz_u64 = base_hz;
+
+ /*
+ * Start by shifting base_hz right until it fits in 32 bits, and
+ * is lower than double the target rate. This introduces a negative
+ * shift value which would result in pvclock_scale_delta() shifting
+ * the actual tick count right before performing the multiplication.
+ */
+ while (base_hz_u64 > scaled_hz_u64 * 2 || base_hz_u64 >> 32) {
+ base_hz_u64 >>= 1;
shift--;
}
- tps32 = (uint32_t)tps64;
- while (tps32 <= scaled64 || scaled64 & 0xffffffff00000000ULL) {
- if (scaled64 & 0xffffffff00000000ULL || tps32 & 0x80000000)
- scaled64 >>= 1;
+ /* Now the shifted base_hz fits in 32 bits. */
+ base32 = (u32)base_hz_u64;
+
+ /*
+ * Next, shift scaled_hz right until it fits in 32 bits, and ensure
+ * that the shifted base_hz is strictly larger (so that the result of the
+ * final division also fits in 32 bits).
+ */
+ while (base32 <= scaled_hz_u64 || scaled_hz_u64 >> 32) {
+ if (scaled_hz_u64 >> 32 || base32 & BIT(31))
+ scaled_hz_u64 >>= 1;
else
- tps32 <<= 1;
+ base32 <<= 1;
shift++;
}
*pshift = shift;
- *pmultiplier = div_frac(scaled64, tps32);
+ *pmultiplier = div_frac(scaled_hz_u64, base32);
}
#ifdef CONFIG_X86_64
--
2.55.0.679.g6767b8d81c-goog
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-08-10 22:55 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 22+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-10 22:54 [PATCH v9 00/21] KVM: x86: Cleaning up the KVM clock mess, part 1 Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 01/21] KVM: x86: Update "last guest TSC" snapshot prior to enabling IRQs/preemption Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 02/21] KVM: x86: Improve accuracy of KVM clock when TSC scaling is in force Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 03/21] KVM: x86: Explicitly disable TSC scaling without CONSTANT_TSC Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 04/21] KVM: x86: Activate master clock immediately on vCPU creation Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 05/21] KVM: x86: Compute kvmclock base without pvclock_gtod_data Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 06/21] KVM: x86: Avoid NTP frequency skew for KVM clock on 32-bit host Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 07/21] KVM: x86: Drop unnecessary CPU pinning when computing/getting kvmclock Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 08/21] KVM: x86: Move "no master clock" fallback from __get_kvmclock() to get_kvmclock() Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 09/21] KVM: x86: Wrap all of __get_kvmclock_master_clock() with CONFIG_X86_64=y Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 10/21] KVM: x86: Fall back to non-master-clock if clockread fails in get_kvmclock() Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 11/21] KVM: x86: Fix KVM clock precision in get_kvmclock() with TSC scaling Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 12/21] KVM: x86: Use get_kvmclock() in kvm_get_wall_clock_epoch() Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 13/21] KVM: x86: Fix compute_guest_tsc() to handle negative time deltas Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 14/21] KVM: x86: Disable preemption, not IRQs, when getting TSC+freq pair Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 15/21] KVM: x86: Make master clock logic in guest PV clock updates 64-bit only Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 16/21] KVM: x86: Upscale TSC to "now", not master clock when updating PV clocks Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` Sean Christopherson [this message]
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 18/21] KVM: x86: Remove implicit rdtsc() from kvm_compute_l1_tsc_offset() Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 19/21] KVM: x86: Use kernel timekeeping snapshots for getting kvmclock time since boot Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 20/21] KVM: x86: Use kernel timekeeping snapshot for monotonic clock Sean Christopherson
2026-08-10 22:54 ` [PATCH v9 21/21] KVM: x86: Use kernel timekeeping snapshot to get walltime+TSC Sean Christopherson
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