linux-kernel - Re: [perfmon2] comments on Performance Counters for Linux (PCL)

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Date:	Fri, 29 May 2009 10:21:30 +0200 (CEST)
From:	Geert Uytterhoeven <Geert.Uytterhoeven@...ycom.com>
To:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
cc:	Paul Mackerras <paulus@...ba.org>,
	Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>,
	Philip Mucci <mucci@...s.utk.edu>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Andi Kleen <andi@...stfloor.org>,
	Maynard Johnson <mpjohn@...ibm.com>, eranian@...il.com,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	perfmon2-devel <perfmon2-devel@...ts.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [perfmon2] comments on Performance Counters for Linux (PCL)

On Fri, 29 May 2009, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> * Paul Mackerras <paulus@...ba.org> wrote:
> > Ingo Molnar writes:
> > > * Corey Ashford <cjashfor@...ux.vnet.ibm.com> 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?

With kind regards,

Geert Uytterhoeven
Software Architect
Techsoft Centre

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