time: Add driver cross timestamp interface for higher precision time synchronization
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>
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