ACKNOWLEDGMENT: cross timestamp code was developed by Thomas Gleixner
<tglx@linutronix.de>. It has changed considerably and any mistakes are
mine.

The precision with which events on multiple networked systems can be
synchronized using, as an example, PTP (IEEE 1588, 802.1AS) is limited
by the precision of the cross timestamps between the system clock and
the device (timestamp) clock. Precision here is the degree of
simultaneity when capturing the cross timestamp.

Currently the PTP cross timestamp is captured in software using the
PTP device driver ioctl PTP_SYS_OFFSET. Reads of the device clock are
interleaved with reads of the realtime clock. At best, the precision
of this cross timestamp is on the order of several microseconds due to
software latencies. Sub-microsecond precision is required for
industrial control and some media applications. To achieve this level
of precision hardware supported cross timestamping is needed.

The function get_device_system_crosstimestamp() allows device drivers
to return a cross timestamp with system time properly scaled to
nanoseconds.  The realtime value is needed to discipline that clock
using PTP and the monotonic raw value is used for applications that
don't require a "real" time, but need an unadjusted clock time.  The
get_device_system_crosstimestamp() code calls back into the driver to
ensure that the system counter is within the current timekeeping
update interval.

Modern Intel hardware provides an Always Running Timer (ART) which is
exactly related to TSC through a known frequency ratio. The ART is
routed to devices on the system and is used to precisely and
simultaneously capture the device clock with the ART.

Cc: Prarit Bhargava <prarit@redhat.com>
Cc: Richard Cochran <richardcochran@gmail.com>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net>
Cc: kevin.b.stanton@intel.com
Cc: kevin.j.clarke@intel.com
Cc: hpa@zytor.com
Cc: jeffrey.t.kirsher@intel.com
Cc: netdev@vger.kernel.org
Reviewed-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Signed-off-by: Christopher S. Hall <christopher.s.hall@intel.com>
[jstultz: Reworked to remove extra structures and simplify calling]
Signed-off-by: John Stultz <john.stultz@linaro.org>