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  #1  
Old 12-24-2010, 07:16 AM
fumoboy007 fumoboy007 is offline
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AMD Dual-Core Optimizer for Snow Leopard

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I have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor. If I boot into Snow Leopard as is, I get EXC_I386_DIV crashes across my entire system after a few hours. If I boot with the cpus=1 kernel flag, I do not receive the crashes but I lose my second core, of course. When I booted with both cores enabled, I saw a message in my kernel log saying I had an unsynchronized TSC (time stamp counter) so I deduced that that was the cause of my crashes. And it made sense since only after a few hours could the TSC become so unsynchronized so as to cause crashes (I don't know the specifics.). After I discovered this, I found the VoodooTSCSync project (http://code.google.com/p/voodootscsync/). I tried it and it synchronized my TSC at boot but I still got crashes! Then I realized that I needed my TSC to be synchronized constantly, just like the AMD Dual-Core Optimizer does for Windows users. So I took the VoodooTSCSync project and turned it into VoodooTSCSyncAMD.

What it does
VoodooTSCSyncAMD is basically AMD Dual-Core Optimizer for the Mac OS. It synchronizes the TSC across all processor cores every 10 seconds. This is for Athlon 64 FX, Athlon 64 X2, Opteron (first-generation and second-generation), Sempron X2, and Turion 64 X2. VoodooTSCSyncAMD is essential to prevent EXC_I386_DIV crashes on these processors, as well as problems with Adobe Flash Player, and system lag after a few hours. I would like to thank the original creators of VoodooTSCSync for their efforts.
Attached Files
File Type: zip VoodooTSCSyncAMD.zip (309.0 KB, 672 views)
File Type: zip VoodooTSCSyncAMD.kext.zip (15.6 KB, 567 views)

Last edited by fumoboy007; 04-01-2011 at 02:27 AM.
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  #2  
Old 12-24-2010, 11:37 AM
markusthekiller markusthekiller is offline
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works!

reporting that it works on my AMD Athlon64 X2 5200+
no more ``EXC_I386_DIV`` crashes in console after 3+ hours so far
Thank you !
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  #3  
Old 12-24-2010, 01:47 PM
mindlessmissy mindlessmissy is offline
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Will try this out ... Thanks !
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  #4  
Old 12-25-2010, 01:41 PM
RayFlower RayFlower is offline
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Sweet, any chance to get this working with other multi core processors?
I have a phenom II x4, i guess i could try and see if this works out of the box
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  #5  
Old 12-25-2010, 03:06 PM
scififan68 scififan68 is offline
 
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Location: Midwest USA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RayFlower View Post
Sweet, any chance to get this working with other multi core processors?
I have a phenom II x4, i guess i could try and see if this works out of the box
Actually this isn't needed on the Phenom II's or Athlon II's, only older Amd x2's(not II X2's).

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  #6  
Old 12-25-2010, 04:22 PM
RayFlower RayFlower is offline
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Ah, okay, thanks for pointing that out
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  #7  
Old 12-26-2010, 04:05 PM
fxwizrd fxwizrd is offline
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Thank you, fumoboy007, for the fix. I also have an older Athlon x2 64 CPU and experience similar random application and system crashes after some hours after start of the system.
Hopefully this kext will eliminate these sync issues altogether
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  #8  
Old 12-31-2010, 03:14 AM
starwa314 starwa314 is offline
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You are my hero! It's been so aggravating having a system being so close to perfect except for one issue that ruins the experience. Now my computer's been running great without any crashing. Thank you so much!
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  #9  
Old 01-05-2011, 11:13 AM
AVO-Electronics AVO-Electronics is offline
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[quote=fumoboy007;51881]History
I have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor. If I boot into Snow Leopard as is, I get EXC_I386_DIV crashes across my entire system after a few hours. If I boot with the cpus=1 kernel flag, I do not receive the crashes but I lose my second core, of course. When I booted with both cores enabled, I saw a message in my kernel log saying I had an unsynchronized TSC (time stamp counter) so I deduced that that was the cause of my crashes. And it made sense since only after a few hours could the TSC become so unsynchronized so as to cause crashes (I don't know the specifics.). After I discovered this, I found the VoodooTSCSync project (http://code.google.com/p/voodootscsync/). I tried it and it synchronized my TSC at boot but I still got crashes! Then I realized that I needed my TSC to be synchronized constantly, just like the AMD Dual-Core Optimizer does for Windows users. So I took the VoodooTSCSync project and turned it into VoodooTSCSyncAMD.

Does the following bootflag not work? - maybe it syncs only at boot also?

Code:
 
"tscsync=
Certain multi-core CPUs suffer from a timestamp counter drift between the cores
causing unpredictable timing behaviour or audio stutters. The kernel automatically
accounts for this. Use this option to enable or disable this feature. Pass 0 (zero) to 
disable or 1 (one) to enable tsc synchronization. Example: tscsync=0"
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  #10  
Old 01-06-2011, 12:46 AM
fumoboy007 fumoboy007 is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 40
Quote:
Originally Posted by AVO-Electronics View Post
Does the following bootflag not work? - maybe it syncs only at boot also?

Code:
 
"tscsync=
Certain multi-core CPUs suffer from a timestamp counter drift between the cores
causing unpredictable timing behaviour or audio stutters. The kernel automatically
accounts for this. Use this option to enable or disable this feature. Pass 0 (zero) to 
disable or 1 (one) to enable tsc synchronization. Example: tscsync=0"
This is a feature of the Voodoo kernel for Leopard. On Snow Leopard, we need this kext until somebody integrates it into the kernel.



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