From owner-freebsd-performance@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 16 10:10:28 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 200081065677 for ; Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:10:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from redcrash@gmail.com) Received: from rv-out-0506.google.com (rv-out-0506.google.com [209.85.198.231]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E38D58FC1A for ; Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:10:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from redcrash@gmail.com) Received: by rv-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id b25so1573015rvf.43 for ; Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:10:27 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to :subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references; bh=Hwd4xu18DQi9a3ddXFVHneEf0H2bG/FJHvyj+PP3p9U=; b=JpezJDUT2GLzXzJNczULh9UCSZPt/dx51GcwZfyrg+EEc7gPMpenxvyaUmaN3WRcmx IlKFcduzyE9Q7sxO8JrefZJU/6pqg0APZ1s4b1boxGaW+TxOpov2Sn+uU/iqwOdleR9T LjDfhW5FIgDQBjthHFChTQfUvPp+qHvrY8wqg= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version :content-type:references; b=HLqB2fnHO81WxCm9DPONCc3uUEGancce/HGkJYlag+XBaWyYl3SZHTmjJ9RwjZgO6w abTeLF3lHw50ccN0mKdredi1/+B17bx9cDqb1s6KCawrT5U1O7LsjgIeYGqOo7vrlpMg EnPVdAHvRcFEm1CWfVw3sUDEgvRiRGEGE6nV0= Received: by 10.142.14.18 with SMTP id 18mr962370wfn.35.1232099040481; Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:44:00 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.142.239.14 with HTTP; Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:44:00 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:44:00 +0100 From: "Harald Servat" To: "Kip Macy" In-Reply-To: <3c1674c90901151847lbb5e440lb5f45628b4746ccd@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <3c1674c90901151847lbb5e440lb5f45628b4746ccd@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org, carl@cs.mcgill.ca Subject: Re: performance counters was Re: (no subject) X-BeenThere: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Performance/tuning List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:10:28 -0000 On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 3:47 AM, Kip Macy wrote: > The man pages have a fair amount of documentation, you can also look > dev/hwpmc/pmc_events.h to find all the event names. > > -Kip > > On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 12:23 PM, carl tropper wrote: > > > > What are the performance counters for multicore (unix based) machines > which > > are relevant to cache behavior? I am interested in determining the amount > of > > performance loss due to cache misses. > > > > > > Carl Tropper > > Department of Computer Science > > McConnell Engineering Building > > McGill University > > Montreal, Canada, H3A 2A6 > > tel: (514)398-3743 > > fax: (514)398-3883 > > url:www.cs.mcgill.ca/~carl > > > > > Carl, If you are worried by portability (you just talk about "unix based"), you can also consider PAPI (http://icl.cs.utk.edu/papi). It provides a layer built on top of the different available substrates related with performance counters. For example, it works on FreeBSD on top of libpmc, in Linux on top perfctr and/or perfmon and in AIX on top of PMAPI. PAPI tries to simplify some performance metrics because the CPU typically provides counters highly-related with its architecture, for example I've seen AIX/PowerPC machines that provide cache misses for level 2.5 and 2.75 which is quite peculiar. PAPI is also able to provide direct access to them, if you are interested. If you just consider FreeBSD (as you contacted this list), you may directly look for the hwpmc and pmc entry manuals. Regards,