From b5a7c219f06b296c0e6c392bf6691495dbfa6425 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Johannes Stoelp <johannes.stoelp@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2024 19:30:58 +0200
Subject: x86: add rdtsc notes

---
 src/arch/x86_64.md | 19 +++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+)

(limited to 'src/arch')

diff --git a/src/arch/x86_64.md b/src/arch/x86_64.md
index 2635a4e..1f7ffdd 100644
--- a/src/arch/x86_64.md
+++ b/src/arch/x86_64.md
@@ -147,6 +147,25 @@ mov cx, 0x10
 rep stosb
 ```
 
+## Time stamp counter - `rdtsc`
+```c
+static inline uint64_t rdtsc() {
+  uint32_t eax, edx;
+  asm volatile("rdtsc" : "=d"(edx), "=a"(eax)::);
+  return (uint64_t)edx << 32 | eax;
+}
+```
+> Constant TSC behavior ensures that the duration of each clock tick is uniform
+> and supports the use of the TSC as a wall clock timer even if the processor
+> core changes frequency. This is the architectural behavior moving forward.
+> - 18.17 TIME-STAMP COUNTER - [intel64-vol3][intel64_vol3]
+
+On linux one can check the `constant_tsc` cpu flag, to validate if the
+implemented TSC ticks with a constant frequency.
+```sh
+grep constant_tsc /proc/cpuinfo
+```
+
 ## [SysV x86_64 ABI][sysvabi]
 
 ### Passing arguments to functions
-- 
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