Re: [PATCH] perf, x86: Support full width counting v3

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Tue Jun 25 2013 - 03:22:21 EST



* Andi Kleen <andi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Andi Kleen <ak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Recent Intel CPUs like Haswell and IvyBridge have a new alternative MSR
> range for perfctrs that allows writing the full counter width. Enable this
> range if the hardware reports it using a new capability bit.
>
> This lowers the overhead of perf stat slightly because it has to do less
> interrupts to accumulate the counter value. On Haswell it also avoids some
> problems with TSX aborting when the end of the counter range is reached.

Looks good - the changelog needs more work: please first outline the
current behavior (how we can only write 32 bit values into the counter,
even though the counter range is larger on most CPUs).

Then also outline the Haswell problems more precisely. What happens, why,
with what probability and why do we care?

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/