[ntp:questions] PPS kit for 2.6 linux kernels?

Richard B. gilbert rgilbert88 at comcast.net
Fri Apr 13 00:23:35 UTC 2007


Hal Murray wrote:
>>Last time when I looked at it, it had no support for kernel PPS
>>("hardpps()"). That's what I also had a long time before. I haven't checked
>>recently.
> 
> 
> I've never understood this area.  Why do I want a hardpps in the kernel?
  <snip>
> 
> Maybe in the old days ntpd couldn't get enough CPU cycles on busy
> machines.  Is that a serious problem today?
> 

No.  Even the hardware of ten to fifteen years ago has sufficient 
capacity to run ntpd.  I run ntpd on Sun Ultra 10 machines with 440 MHz 
CPU's (late 1990's vintage).  You could probably run ntpd on an 80486 
processor if you:
a. could still find one and,
b. could equip it with enough RAM.

Ntpd runs at elevated/real-time priorities and needs, perhaps, 1% of the 
  CPU or even less on modern hardware.





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