Intel Xeon Processor MP Specification Update

Intel
®
Xeon
®
Processor MP Specification Update 43
Specification Clarifications
Specification Clarifications
There are no new Specification Clarifications for this revision.
The Specification Clarifications listed in this section apply to the following documents:
• Intel
®
Xeon™ Processor MP Datasheet (Order Number 290740)
• IA-32 Intel
®
Architecture Software Developer’s Manual, Volume 1: Basic Architecture
(Order Number 253665)
• IA-32 Intel
®
Architecture Software Developer’s Manual, Volume 2A: Instruction Set
Reference, A-M (Order Number 253666)
• IA-32 Intel
®
Architecture Software Developer’s Manual, Volume 2B: Instruction Set
Reference, N-Z (Order Number 253667)
• IA-32 Intel
®
Architecture Software Developer’s Manual, Volume 3: System Programming
Guide (Order Number 253668)
• Intel
®
Xeon™ Processor MP with up to 4-MB L3 Cache on the 0.13 Micron Process
Datasheet (Order Number 251931)
All Specification Clarifications will be incorporated into a future version of the appropriate Intel
Xeon processor documentation.
O1 Specification Clarification with respect to Time-Stamp Counter
In the “Debugging and Performance Monitoring” chapter (Section 15.8, Section 15.10.9 and
Section 15.10.9.3) of the IA-32 Intel
®
Architecture Software Developer’s Manual, Volume 3:
System Programming Guide, the Time-Stamp Counter definition has been updated to include
support for the future processors. This change will be incorporated in the next revision of the IA-32
Intel
®
Architecture Software Developer’s Manual.
15.8 Time-Stamp Counter
The IA-32 architecture (beginning with the Pentium
®
processor) defines a time-stamp counter
mechanism that can be used to monitor and identify the relative time occurrence of processor
events. The counter’s architecture includes the following components:
• TSC flag — A feature bit that indicates the availability of the time-stamp counter. The counter
is available in an IA-32 processor implementation if the function CPUID.1:EDX.TSC[bit 4]
=1.
• IA32_TIME_STAMP_COUNTER MSR (called TSC MSR in P6 family and Pentium
processors) — The MSR used as the counter.
• RDTSC instruction — An instruction used to read the time-stamp counter.
• TSD flag — A control register flag is used to enable or disable the time-stamp counter
(enabled if CR4.TSD[bit 2] = 1).
The time-stamp counter (as implemented in the P6 family, Pentium, Pentium M, Pentium 4, and
Intel
®
Xeon
®
processors) is a 64-bit counter that is set to 0 following a RESET of the processor.
Following a RESET, the counter will increment even when the processor is halted by the HLT
instruction or the external STPCLK# pin. Note that the assertion of the external DPSLP# pin may
cause the time-stamp counter to stop.