On Mon, Aug 24, 2020 at 01:55:45AM +0200, Mark Kettenis wrote:
> > Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2020 18:11:12 -0500
> > From: Scott Cheloha <[email protected]>
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Other BSDs use the TSC to implement delay(9) if the TSC is constant
> > and invariant.  Here's a patch to add something similar to our kernel.
>
> If the TSC is fine as a timecounter it should be absolutely fine for
> use as delay().  And we could even use if the TSC isn't synchronized
> between CPUs.
>
> >
> > This patch (or something equivalent) is a prerequisite to running the
> > lapic timer in oneshot or TSC deadline mode.  Using the lapic timer to
> > implement delay(9) when it isn't running in periodic mode is too
> > complicated.  However, using the i8254 for delay(9) is too slow.  We
> > need an alternative.
>
> Hmm, but what are we going to use on machines where the TSC isn't
> constant/invariant?
>
> In what respect is the i8254 too slow?  Does it take more than a
> microsecond to read it?
>

It's 3 outb/inb pairs to ensure you get the reading correct. So that could
be quite a long time (as cheloha@ points out). Also, that's 6 VM exits if
running virtually (I realize that's not the main use case here but just
saying...)

IIRC the 3 in/out pairs are the latch command followed by reading the LSB/MSB
of the counter. It's not MMIO like the HPET or ACPI timer.

And as cheloha@ also points out, it is highly likely that none of us have a
real i8254 anymore, much of this is probably implemented in some EC somewhere
and it's unlikely the developer of said EC put a lot of effort into optimizing
the implementation of a legacy device like this.

On the topic of virtualization:

while (rdtsc() - start < want)
 rdtsc();

..produces two VM exits (generally, on most hypervisors) since the TSC is
usually time corrected. That's a lot of exits, and it gets worse on faster
machines. I don't have a better idea, however. There may be a PV clock option
that is more optimized in some scenarios.

-ml


> We could use the HPET I suppose, whic may be a bit better.
>
> > As for the patch, it works for me here, though I'd appreciate a few
> > tests.  I admit that comparing function pointers is ugly, but I think
> > this is as simple as it can be without implementing some sort of
> > framework for "registering" delay(9) implementations and comparing
> > them and selecting the "best" implementation.
>
> What about:
>
>               if (delay_func == NULL)
>                       delay_func = lapic_delay;
>
> > I'm not sure I put the prototypes in the right headers.  We don't have
> > a tsc.h but cpuvar.h looks sorta-correct for tsc_delay().
>
> I think cpuvar.h is fine since it has other TSC-related stuff.
> However, with my suggestion above you can drop that.
>
> > FreeBSD's x86/delay.c may be of note:
> >
> > https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/blob/ed96335a07b688c39e16db8856232e5840bc22ac/sys/x86/x86/delay.c
> >
> > Thoughts?
> >
> > Index: amd64/tsc.c
> > ===================================================================
> > RCS file: /cvs/src/sys/arch/amd64/amd64/tsc.c,v
> > retrieving revision 1.20
> > diff -u -p -r1.20 tsc.c
> > --- amd64/tsc.c     23 Aug 2020 21:38:47 -0000      1.20
> > +++ amd64/tsc.c     23 Aug 2020 22:59:25 -0000
> > @@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
> >
> >  #include <machine/cpu.h>
> >  #include <machine/cpufunc.h>
> > +#include <machine/cpuvar.h>
> >
> >  #define RECALIBRATE_MAX_RETRIES            5
> >  #define RECALIBRATE_SMI_THRESHOLD  50000
> > @@ -252,7 +253,8 @@ tsc_timecounter_init(struct cpu_info *ci
> >             tsc_timecounter.tc_quality = -1000;
> >             tsc_timecounter.tc_user = 0;
> >             tsc_is_invariant = 0;
> > -   }
> > +   } else
> > +           delay_func = tsc_delay;
> >
> >     tc_init(&tsc_timecounter);
> >  }
> > @@ -342,4 +344,15 @@ tsc_sync_ap(struct cpu_info *ci)
> >  {
> >     tsc_post_ap(ci);
> >     tsc_post_ap(ci);
> > +}
> > +
> > +void
> > +tsc_delay(int usecs)
> > +{
> > +   uint64_t interval, start;
> > +
> > +   interval = (uint64_t)usecs * tsc_frequency / 1000000;
> > +   start = rdtsc_lfence();
> > +   while (rdtsc_lfence() - start < interval)
> > +           CPU_BUSY_CYCLE();
> >  }
> > Index: amd64/lapic.c
> > ===================================================================
> > RCS file: /cvs/src/sys/arch/amd64/amd64/lapic.c,v
> > retrieving revision 1.55
> > diff -u -p -r1.55 lapic.c
> > --- amd64/lapic.c   3 Aug 2019 14:57:51 -0000       1.55
> > +++ amd64/lapic.c   23 Aug 2020 22:59:25 -0000
> > @@ -41,6 +41,7 @@
> >  #include <machine/codepatch.h>
> >  #include <machine/cpu.h>
> >  #include <machine/cpufunc.h>
> > +#include <machine/cpuvar.h>
> >  #include <machine/pmap.h>
> >  #include <machine/mpbiosvar.h>
> >  #include <machine/specialreg.h>
> > @@ -569,7 +570,8 @@ skip_calibration:
> >              * Now that the timer's calibrated, use the apic timer routines
> >              * for all our timing needs..
> >              */
> > -           delay_func = lapic_delay;
> > +           if (delay_func != tsc_delay)
> > +                   delay_func = lapic_delay;
> >             initclock_func = lapic_initclocks;
> >     }
> >  }
> > Index: include/cpuvar.h
> > ===================================================================
> > RCS file: /cvs/src/sys/arch/amd64/include/cpuvar.h,v
> > retrieving revision 1.10
> > diff -u -p -r1.10 cpuvar.h
> > --- include/cpuvar.h        9 Aug 2019 15:20:05 -0000       1.10
> > +++ include/cpuvar.h        23 Aug 2020 22:59:25 -0000
> > @@ -102,4 +102,6 @@ void tsc_sync_drift(int64_t);
> >  void tsc_sync_bp(struct cpu_info *);
> >  void tsc_sync_ap(struct cpu_info *);
> >
> > +void tsc_delay(int);
> > +
> >  #endif
> > Index: include/i82489var.h
> > ===================================================================
> > RCS file: /cvs/src/sys/arch/amd64/include/i82489var.h,v
> > retrieving revision 1.18
> > diff -u -p -r1.18 i82489var.h
> > --- include/i82489var.h     4 Oct 2018 05:00:40 -0000       1.18
> > +++ include/i82489var.h     23 Aug 2020 22:59:26 -0000
> > @@ -128,4 +128,6 @@ extern void lapic_calibrate_timer(struct
> >  extern void lapic_startclock(void);
> >  extern void lapic_initclocks(void);
> >
> > +extern void lapic_delay(int);
> > +
> >  #endif
> >
> >
>

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