RE: [Xen-devel] RE: Saving/Restoring IA32_TSC_AUX MSR

["Nakajima, Jun" <jun.nakajima@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dan Magenheimer wrote on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 at 14:23:02:

> Well, although it might be nice to be able to use
> rdtscp and TSC_AUX to determine pcpu/vcpu/pnode/vnode
> information, I think Jeremy and Jan convinced me in
> another thread a couple of months ago that in userland:
> 
> x = vgetcpu()
> do_other_stuff();
> y = vgetcpu()
> 
> if x==1 and y==2, there's no way to determine that
> do_other_stuff() was executed on cpu 1 vs cpu 2,
> or (though unlikely) even on cpu 3.  And if
> x==y==4, there's  no guarantee that do_other_stuff()
> is executed on cpu 4.
> 
> If this is true the only safe use of TSC_AUX is for
> its originally designed intent: To determine if two
> successive rdtscp instructions were or were not
> executed on the same processor.  Since this cannot
> be guaranteed in a VM, that's a reasonable argument
> that TSC_AUX shouldn't be exposed at all (meaning the
> rdtscp bit in cpuid should be turned off by Xen).

This should work if you bind (i.e. pin) each vcpu to each CPU, as I suggested.

Jun
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Intel Open Source Technology Center




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