solaris.xtra.4023118   [plain text]

 Bug Id: 4023118
 Category: kernel
 Subcategory: other
 State: integrated
 Synopsis: sun4u doesn't keep accurate time
 Description:

[ bmc, 12/20/96 ]

The clock on a sun4u drifts unacceptably.  On a typical 143 mHz Ultra,
the clock took 1.0001350 seconds to count 1 second.  While this may seem
trivial, it adds up quickly.  In this case, the TOD chip will have to
pull the clock forward by 2 seconds every 4 hours and 7 minutes.
This drift rate is so high, that the clock is close to being too broken
for NTP to guarantee correctness (in order for NTP's mechanism to work,
it must be assured that the local clock drifts no more than 20 ms in 64
seconds;  this particular 143 mHz Ultra will drift by nearly 9 ms in that
period).  This problem has been reproduced on virtually all sun4u
classes.

The fundamental problem lies in the kernel's perception of ticks per
second.  The PROM is responsible for determining this figure exactly,
and the kernel extracts it into the variable cpu_tick_freq.  On sun4u's,
this number is disconcertingly round:  143000000, 167000000, 248000000,
etc.  Indeed, a simple experiment revealed that these numbers were
quite far from the actual ticks per second.  Typical was the 143 mHz
Ultra which was discovered to tick around 142,980,806 (+/- 10) times
per second.

 Work around:

        Integrated in releases: s297_27
 Duplicate of:
 Patch id:
 See also:
 Summary: