Re: [perfmon2] comments on Performance Counters for Linux (PCL)
Status: Beta
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From: Carl L. <ce...@us...> - 2009-05-29 14:45:26
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On Fri, 2009-05-29 at 10:21 +0200, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote: > On Fri, 29 May 2009, Ingo Molnar wrote: > > * Paul Mackerras <pa...@sa...> wrote: > > > Ingo Molnar writes: > > > > * Corey Ashford <cja...@li...> wrote: > > > > >> So you're suggesting to artificually strech periods by say > > > > >> composing a single overflow from smaller ones, ignoring the > > > > >> intermediate overflow events? > > > > >> > > > > >> That sounds doable, again, patch welcome. > > > > > > > > > > I definitely agree with Stephane's point on this one. I had > > > > > assumed that long irq_periods (longer than the width of the > > > > > counter) would be synthesized as you suggest. If this is not the > > > > > case, PCL should be changed so that it does, -or- at a minimum, > > > > > the user should get an error back stating that the period is too > > > > > long for the hardware counter. > > > > > > > > this looks somewhat academic - at least on x86, even the fastest > > > > events (say cycles) with a 32 bit overflow means one event per > > > > second on 4GB. That's not a significant event count in practice. > > > > What's the minimum width we are talking about on Power? > > > > > > 32 bits, but since the top bit is effectively a level-sensitive > > > interrupt request, the maximum period in hardware is 2^31 counts. > > > > > > However, I already support 64-bit interrupt periods (well, 63-bit > > > actually) on powerpc by only calling perf_counter_overflow() when > > > counter->hw.period_left becomes <= 0, and arranging to set the > > > hardware counter to 0 if counter->hw.period_left is >= 0x80000000. > > > It's a tiny amount of code to handle it, really. > > > > No argument about that - just wanted to know whether there's any > > real practical effect beyond the nitpicking factor ;-) > > I never really dived into this stuff, but ISTR there are some 16-bit counters > on CELL? Is that correct? FYI, the counters on CELL are configurable. You can have up to eight 16 bit count counters or you can combine counters i and i=1 (where i=0,2,4,6) into 32 bit counters. This allows you to have some 16 and some 32 bit counters at the same time. > > With kind regards, > > Geert Uytterhoeven > Software Architect > Techsoft Centre > > Technology and Software Centre Europe > The Corporate Village · Da Vincilaan 7-D1 · B-1935 Zaventem · Belgium > > Phone: +32 (0)2 700 8453 > Fax: +32 (0)2 700 8622 > E-mail: Gee...@so... > Internet: http://www.sony-europe.com/ > > A division of Sony Europe (Belgium) N.V. > VAT BE 0413.825.160 · RPR Brussels > Fortis · BIC GEBABEBB · IBAN BE41293037680010 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Register Now for Creativity and Technology (CaT), June 3rd, NYC. CaT > is a gathering of tech-side developers & brand creativity professionals. Meet > the minds behind Google Creative Lab, Visual Complexity, Processing, & > iPhoneDevCamp as they present alongside digital heavyweights like Barbarian > Group, R/GA, & Big Spaceship. http://p.sf.net/sfu/creativitycat-com > _______________________________________________ > perfmon2-devel mailing list > per...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/perfmon2-devel |