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X86 timing

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Revision as of 08:47, 17 December 2009 by Dank (talk | contribs)
  • Linux clocksources vs clockevents
  • PIT -- Programmable Interval Timer (eg Intel 8253)
  • ACPI counter
  • LAPIC counter
  • HPET. Unprivileged programmability is limited by /proc/sys/dev/hpet/max-user-freq (in Hz):
[recombinator](1) $ cat /proc/sys/dev/hpet/max-user-freq 
64
[recombinator](0) $ 
  • TSC since Pentium

Real Time Clocks

[recombinator](0) $ cat /proc/driver/rtc 
rtc_time	: 07:43:30
rtc_date	: 2009-06-27
alrm_time	: **:00:00
alrm_date	: ****-**-**
alarm_IRQ	: no
alrm_pending	: no
24hr		: yes
periodic_IRQ	: no
update_IRQ	: no
HPET_emulated	: yes
DST_enable	: no
periodic_freq	: 1024
batt_status	: okay
[recombinator](0) $ 
  • Multiple RTC's might exist in a machine, thus Linux's "RTC Class"
    • Each RTC gets a device node (by default, /dev/rtc*
    • If [sysfs] is enabled, each gets an entry at /sys/class/rtc/*/:
[recombinator](0) $ ls /sys/class/rtc/rtc0/
date  device         name   since_epoch  time    wakealarm
dev   max_user_freq  power  subsystem    uevent
[recombinator](0) $ 

See Also