From 879238fecc051d95037ae76332916209a7770709 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Stefan Fritsch Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:55:40 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] KVM: clarify kvmclock documentation - mention that system time needs to be added to wallclock time - positive tsc_shift means left shift, not right - mention additional 32bit right shift Signed-off-by: Stefan Fritsch Signed-off-by: Marcelo Tosatti --- Documentation/virtual/kvm/msr.txt | 32 +++++++++++++++++++------------ 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/msr.txt b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/msr.txt index 730471048583..6d470ae7b073 100644 --- a/Documentation/virtual/kvm/msr.txt +++ b/Documentation/virtual/kvm/msr.txt @@ -34,9 +34,12 @@ MSR_KVM_WALL_CLOCK_NEW: 0x4b564d00 time information and check that they are both equal and even. An odd version indicates an in-progress update. - sec: number of seconds for wallclock. + sec: number of seconds for wallclock at time of boot. - nsec: number of nanoseconds for wallclock. + nsec: number of nanoseconds for wallclock at time of boot. + + In order to get the current wallclock time, the system_time from + MSR_KVM_SYSTEM_TIME_NEW needs to be added. Note that although MSRs are per-CPU entities, the effect of this particular MSR is global. @@ -82,20 +85,25 @@ MSR_KVM_SYSTEM_TIME_NEW: 0x4b564d01 time at the time this structure was last updated. Unit is nanoseconds. - tsc_to_system_mul: a function of the tsc frequency. One has - to multiply any tsc-related quantity by this value to get - a value in nanoseconds, besides dividing by 2^tsc_shift + tsc_to_system_mul: multiplier to be used when converting + tsc-related quantity to nanoseconds - tsc_shift: cycle to nanosecond divider, as a power of two, to - allow for shift rights. One has to shift right any tsc-related - quantity by this value to get a value in nanoseconds, besides - multiplying by tsc_to_system_mul. + tsc_shift: shift to be used when converting tsc-related + quantity to nanoseconds. This shift will ensure that + multiplication with tsc_to_system_mul does not overflow. + A positive value denotes a left shift, a negative value + a right shift. - With this information, guests can derive per-CPU time by - doing: + The conversion from tsc to nanoseconds involves an additional + right shift by 32 bits. With this information, guests can + derive per-CPU time by doing: time = (current_tsc - tsc_timestamp) - time = (time * tsc_to_system_mul) >> tsc_shift + if (tsc_shift >= 0) + time <<= tsc_shift; + else + time >>= -tsc_shift; + time = (time * tsc_to_system_mul) >> 32 time = time + system_time flags: bits in this field indicate extended capabilities