Re: [generalized cache events] Re: [PATCH 1/1] perf tools: Addmissing user space support for config1/config2

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Mon Apr 25 2011 - 13:41:34 EST



* Andi Kleen <ak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > You're so skilled at not actually saying anything useful. Are you
> > perchance referring to the fact that the IP reported in the PEBS data is
> > exactly _one_ instruction off? Something that is demonstrated to be
> > fixable?
>
> It's one instruction off the instruction that was retired when the PEBS
> interrupt was ready, but not one instruction off the instruction that caused
> the event. There's still skid in triggering the interrupt.

Peter answered this in the other mail:

|
| Sure, but who cares? So your period isn't exactly what you specified, but
| the effective period will have an average and a fairly small stdev (assuming
| the initial period is much larger than the relatively few cycles it takes to
| arm the PEBS assist), therefore you still get a fairly uniform spread.
|

... and the resulting low level of noise in the average period length is what
matters. The instruction itself will still be one of the hotspot instructions,
statistically.

Thanks,

Ingo
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/