Re: [patch] x86: unify/rewrite SMP TSC sync code

[Max Krasnyansky <maxk@qualcomm.com>]

> Using gtod() can amount to a substantial disturbance of the thing to
> be measured.  Using rdtsc, things seem reliable so far, and we have an
> FPGA (accessed through the PCI bus) that has been programmed to give
> access to an 8MHz clock and we do some checks against that.

Same here. gettimeofday() is way too slow (dual Opteron box) for the
frequency I need to call it at. HPET is not available. But TSC is doing just
fine. Plus in my case I don't care about sync between CPUs (thread that uses
TSC is running on the isolated CPU) and I have external time source that takes
care of the drift.

So please no trapping of the RDTSC. Making it clear (bold kernel message during
boot :-) that TSC(s) are not in sync or unstable (from GTOD point of view) is of
course perfectly fine.

Thanx
Max