Subject: Re: RTC and clocks
To: Peter Seebach <seebs@plethora.net>
From: Jared D. McNeill <jmcneill@invisible.ca>
List: port-i386
Date: 09/18/2006 22:54:49
On 18-Sep-06, at 10:44 PM, Peter Seebach wrote:
> $ sysctl kern.timecounter
> kern.timecounter.choice = clockinterrupt(q=0, f=100 Hz) TSC(q=800,
> f=1998399280 Hz) i8254(q=100, f=1193182 Hz) dummy(q=-1000000,  
> f=1000000 Hz)
> kern.timecounter.hardware = TSC
> kern.timecounter.timestepwarnings = 0
>
> Not sure what this means; looks like I'm using "TSC", which looks  
> to be
> CPU-based.  CPU is a Pentium 4M 2GHz.  (Not to be confused with the
> dramatically superior Pentium M.)

Are you running estd (from pkgsrc)? Or, was the 35:60 from when you  
had booted running from battery maybe?

In any case, you should use an alternate timer if you are using  
speedstep -- TSC is known not to handle changes in CPU speed  
properly. This can be done by, eg:

	# sysctl -w kern.timecounter.hardware=i8254

You probably want to use the ACPI timer for finer granularity, if  
possible.

Cheers,
Jared