Re: [PATCH 2/2] perf/x86/intel, watchdog: Switch NMI watchdog to ref cycles on x86

[Andi Kleen]

> 
> > The ref cycles always tick at their frequency, or slower when the system
> > is idling. That means the NMI watchdog can never expire too early,
> > unlike with cycles.
> >
> Just make the period longer, like 30% longer. Take the max turbo factor you can
> get and use that. It is okay if it takes longer of machine with
> smaller max Turbo ratios.

That would be a ticking time bomb. Turbo ratios are likely to grow.

There's no architectural way to get a turbo factor. Even if there
is a model specific MSR it would likely not work in virtualization etc.

You could make the timeout ridiculously large, but even that would
have a small chance of failure.

-Andi