[ntp:questions] Dual-core systems - AMD - Windows Vista

David J Taylor david-taylor at blueyonder.not-this-bit.nor-this-bit.co.uk
Sat Dec 1 14:58:55 UTC 2007


Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
> David J Taylor wrote:
>> Folks,
>>
>> I'm still trying to resolve NTP on Windows Vista.  I do have a
>> dual-core system, so I was wondering how NTP handled dual-core.  Does 
>> it
>> discipline both cores, and is a special start-up switch required? 
>> Should I
>> define the affinity for NTP to a single core?
>>
>> Looking at the AMD Web site, they do have a utility to sync the two
>> cores - "AMD Dual-Core Optimizer" - under certain circumstances.  I
>> tried to install this on Vista, but a file appears to be missing!  Has
>> anyone got this working, and does it affect NTP?
>>
>> 
>> http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_13118,00.html
>>
>> I seem to be full of questions and not answers today!
>>
>> Thanks,
>> David
>>
>>
>
> I don't see why NTP should even be aware that it's running on a
> Dual-Core CPU.  Why should it be any different from a box with, say,
> four CPUs?

NTP on Windows uses the RDTSC instruction.  Which CPU does it read the 
time stamp counter from?  If NTP is multi-threaded, different threads 
could be run on different CPUs with different TSCs.  Yes, just the same 
issues arise with 4 CPUs, and I don't know how the Windows version of NTP 
handles the multi-processor scenario.

Cheers,
David 





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