Re: [net-next 03/15] net/mlx5: Add adjphase function to support hardware-only offset control
From: Richard Cochran <richardcochran@gmail.com>
Date: 2023-01-23 02:23:05
From: Richard Cochran <richardcochran@gmail.com>
Date: 2023-01-23 02:23:05
On Sun, Jan 22, 2023 at 01:11:57PM -0800, Rahul Rameshbabu wrote:
The way NVIDIA devices internally handle adjphase is to adjust the frequency for a short period of time to make the small time offset adjustments smooth (using some internal calculations) where the time offset "nudge" is applied but frequency is also adjusted to prevent immediate drift after that time adjustment.
Whatever floats your boat.
However, we aren't sure if this is the only approach possible to achieve accurate corrections for small offset adjustments with adjphase,
Typically one would implement a PI controller.
so I would suggest that the documentation be updated to state something discussing that adjphase is expected to support small jumps in offset precisely without necessarily bringing up frequency manipulation potentially done to achieve this.
Sorry if the docs aren't clear. (However, the use of NTP timex ADJ_FREQUENCY and ADJ_OFFSET really should be clear to everyone familiar with NTP.) Bottom line: PHC that offers adjphase should implement a clock servo. Thanks, Richard