From owner-freebsd-arch Fri Nov 17 14:42:49 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from gratis.grondar.za (grouter.grondar.za [196.7.18.65]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8F29A37B479; Fri, 17 Nov 2000 14:42:43 -0800 (PST) Received: from grondar.za (grapevine.grondar.za [196.7.18.17]) by gratis.grondar.za (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id eAHMdtJ07828; Sat, 18 Nov 2000 00:40:01 +0200 (SAST) (envelope-from mark@grondar.za) Message-Id: <200011172240.eAHMdtJ07828@gratis.grondar.za> To: John Hay Cc: jhb@FreeBSD.ORG (John Baldwin), arch@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: new monotime() call for all architectures. References: <200011171909.eAHJ9et99988@zibbi.icomtek.csir.co.za> In-Reply-To: <200011171909.eAHJ9et99988@zibbi.icomtek.csir.co.za> ; from John Hay "Sat, 17 Nov 2000 21:09:40 +0200." Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 00:39:57 +0200 From: Mark Murray Sender: owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > It doesn't matter. He just needs a psuedo-timestamp for entropy gathering > > purposes. It dosen't need to be entirely precise, so if different CPU's > > counters are not 100% in sync it won't hurt anything. > > Ok, I just thought the "mono" in his function name is for monotonic. If > you are staying on one processor it will work, but if the timestamps > have scheduling inbetween the timestamps and you land on a different > processor it won't be monotonic anymore. Actually, it does mean "monotonic", but I don't need strictly monotonic. The "time" info is used to improve the quality of the harvested entropy, but it is not specifically counted, so the errors introduced by different CPU's counters are "free" ontropy. M -- Mark Murray Join the anti-SPAM movement: http://www.cauce.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message