Re: [PATCH] x86: use explicit timing delay for pit accesses in kerneland pcspkr driver

From: H. Peter Anvin
Date: Mon Feb 18 2008 - 16:45:43 EST


Rene Herman wrote:

I mean that before the linux kernel used a port 0x80 write as an I/O delay it used a short jump (two in a row actually...) as such and this was at the time that it actually ran on the old legacy stuff that is of most concern here.

No, if I'm not mistaken, those two jumps are actually what the udelay() is going to do anyway as part of delay_loop() at that early stage so that even before loops_per_jiffy calibration, I believe we should still be okay.


That doesn't make any sense at all. The whole point why the two jumps were obsoleted with the P5 (or even late P4, if I'm not mistaken) was because they were utterly insufficient when the CPU ran at something much higher than the external speed.

Yes, it's a bit of a "well, hrrm" thing, but, well... loops_per_jiffy can be initialised a bit more conservatively then today as well (and as discussed earlier, possibly per CPU family) but I believe it's actually sort of fine not too worry much about it...

Uhm... no. Quite the contrary, I would say.

-hpa
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