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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


  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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