linux-kernel - Re: [RFC][PATCH] perf_events, x86: PEBS support

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Date:	Wed, 3 Feb 2010 15:30:03 +0100
From:	Stephane Eranian <eranian@...gle.com>
To:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
Cc:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>, Paul Mackerras <paulus@...ba.org>,
	"Metzger, Markus T" <markus.t.metzger@...el.com>,
	lkml <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Robert Richter <robert.richter@....com>,
	"David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
	Jamie Iles <jamie.iles@...ochip.com>,
	Paul Mundt <lethal@...ux-sh.org>,
	Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...radead.org>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>, perfmon2-devel@...ts.sf.net
Subject: Re: [RFC][PATCH] perf_events, x86: PEBS support

On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 3:19 PM, Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 2010-02-03 at 15:07 +0100, Stephane Eranian wrote:
>> >> The only improvement that PEBS provides is that you get an IP and the
>> >> machine state at retirement of an instruction that caused the event to
>> >> increment. Thus, the IP points to the next dynamic instruction. The instruction
>> >> is not the one that cause the P-th occurence of the event, if you set the
>> >> period to P. It is at P+N, where N cannot be predicted and varies depending
>> >> on the event and executed code. This introduces some bias in the samples..
>> >
>> > I'm not sure I follow, it records the next event after overflow, doesn't
>> > that make it P+1?
>> >
>> That is not what I wrote. I did not say if records at P+1. I said it records
>> at P+N, where N varies from sample to sample and cannot be predicted.
>> N is expressed in the unit of the sampling event.
>
> OK, so I'm confused.
>
> The manual says it arms the PEBS assist on overflow, and the PEBS thing
> will then record the next event. Which to me reads like P+1.
>
you are assuming arming is instantaneous.
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