For large values of "mult" and long uptimes, the intermediate
result of "cycles * mult" can overflow 64 bits. For example,
the tile platform calls clocksource_cyc2ns with a 1.2 GHz clock;
we have mult = 853, and after 208.5 days, we overflow 64 bits.
Since clocksource_cyc2ns() is intended to be used for relative
cycle counts, not absolute cycle counts, performance is more
importance than accepting a wider range of cycle values. So,
just use mult_frac() directly in tile's sched_clock().
Commit 4cecf6d401 ("sched, x86: Avoid unnecessary overflow
in sched_clock") by Salman Qazi results in essentially the same
generated code for x86 as this change does for tile. In fact,
a follow-on change by Salman introduced mult_frac() and switched
to using it, so the C code was largely identical at that point too.
Peter Zijlstra then added mul_u64_u32_shr() and switched x86
to use it. This is, in principle, better; by optimizing the
64x64->64 multiplies to be 32x32->64 multiplies we can potentially
save some time. However, the compiler piplines the 64x64->64
multiplies pretty well, and the conditional branch in the generic
mul_u64_u32_shr() causes some bubbles in execution, with the
result that it's pretty much a wash. If tilegx provided its own
implementation of mul_u64_u32_shr() without the conditional branch,
we could potentially save 3 cycles, but that seems like small gain
for a fair amount of additional build scaffolding; no other platform
currently provides a mul_u64_u32_shr() override, and tile doesn't
currently have an <asm/div64.h> header to put the override in.
Additionally, gcc currently has an optimization bug that prevents
it from recognizing the opportunity to use a 32x32->64 multiply,
and so the result would be no better than the existing mult_frac()
until such time as the compiler is fixed.
For now, just using mult_frac() seems like the right answer.
Cc: stable@kernel.org [v3.4+]
Signed-off-by: Chris Metcalf <cmetcalf@mellanox.com>
e658a6f14d