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.\" Copyright 1996 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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.\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man4/man4.i386/perfmon.4,v 1.16.10.1.6.1 2010/12/21 17:09:25 kensmith Exp $
.Dd March 26, 1996
.Dt PERFMON 4 i386
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm perfmon
.Nd CPU performance-monitoring interface
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd cpu I586_CPU
.Cd cpu I686_CPU
.Cd options PERFMON
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
driver provides access to the internal performance-monitoring
capabilities of the
.Tn Intel
.Tn Pentium
and
.Tn "Pentium Pro"
CPUs.
These processors implement two internal counters which can be
configured to measure a variety of events for either count or duration
(in CPU cycles), as well as a cycle counter which counts clock cycles.
The
.Nm
driver provides a device-style interface to these capabilities.
.Pp
All access to the performance-monitoring counters is performed through
the special device file
.Dq Pa /dev/perfmon .
This device supports a number of
.Xr ioctl 2
requests, defined in
.In machine/perfmon.h
along with the definitions of the various counters for both
.Tn Pentium
and
.Tn "Pentium Pro"
processors.
.Pp
.Sy NOTA BENE :
The set of available events differs from processor to processor.
It
is the responsibility of the programmer to ensure that the event
numbers used are the correct ones for the CPU type being measured.
.Pp
The following
.Xr ioctl 2
requests are defined:
.Bl -tag -width PMIOTSTAMP
.It Dv PMIOSETUP
.Pq Li "struct pmc"
Set up a counter with parameters and flags defined in the structure.
The following fields are defined in
.Li struct pmc :
.Bl -tag -width "u_char pmc_eventx"
.It Li "int pmc_num"
the number of the counter in question; must be less than
.Dv NPMC
(currently 2).
.It Li "u_char pmc_event"
the particular event number to be monitored, as defined in
.In machine/perfmon.h .
.It Li "u_char pmc_unit"
the unit mask value, specific to the event type (see the
.Tn Intel
documentation).
.It Li "u_char pmc_flags"
flags modifying the operation of the counter (see below).
.It Li "u_char pmc_mask"
the counter mask value; essentially, this is a threshold used to
restrict the count to events lasting more (or less) than the specified
number of clocks.
.El
.Pp
The following
.Li pmc_flags
values are defined:
.Bl -tag -compact -width PMCF_USRxx
.It Dv PMCF_USR
count events in user mode
.It Dv PMCF_OS
count events in kernel mode
.It Dv PMCF_E
count number of events rather than their duration
.It Dv PMCF_INV
invert the sense of the counter mask comparison
.El
.It Dv PMIOGET
.Pq Li "struct pmc"
returns the current configuration of the specified counter.
.It Dv PMIOSTART
.It Dv PMIOSTOP
.Pq Li int
starts (stops) the specified counter.
Due to hardware deficiencies,
counters must be started and stopped in numerical order.
(That is to
say, counter 0 can never be stopped without first stopping counter 1.)
The driver will
.Em not
enforce this restriction (since it may not be present in future CPUs).
.It Dv PMIORESET
.Pq Li int
reset the specified counter to zero.
The counter should be stopped
with
.Dv PMIOSTOP
before it is reset.
All counters are automatically reset by
.Dv PMIOSETUP .
.It Dv PMIOREAD
.Pq Li "struct pmc_data"
get the current value of the counter.
The
.Li pmc_data
structure defines two fields:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "quad_t pmcd_value"
.It Li "int pmcd_num"
the number of the counter to read
.It Li "quad_t pmcd_value"
the resulting value as a 64-bit signed integer
.El
.Pp
In the future, it may be possible to use the
.Li RDPMC
instruction on
.Tn "Pentium Pro"
processors to read the counters directly.
.It Dv PMIOTSTAMP
.Pq Li "struct pmc_tstamp"
read the time stamp counter.
The
.Li pmc_tstamp
structure defines two fields:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width "quad_t pmct_value"
.It Li "int pmct_rate"
the approximate rate of the counter, in MHz
.It Li "quad_t pmct_value"
the current value of the counter as a 64-bit integer
.El
.Pp
It is important to note that the counter rate, as provided in the
.Li pmct_rate
field, is often incorrect because of calibration difficulties and
non-integral clock rates.
This field should be considered more of a
hint or sanity-check than an actual representation of the rate of
clock ticks.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -compact -width "/usr/include/machine/perfmon.h"
.It Pa /dev/perfmon
character device interface to counters
.It Pa /usr/include/machine/perfmon.h
include file with definitions of structures and event types
.It Pa /usr/share/examples/perfmon
sample source code demonstrating use of all the
.Fn ioctl
commands
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ioctl 2 ,
.Xr hwpmc 4
.Rs
.%A Intel Corporation
.%B Pentium Pro Family Developer's Manual
.%D January 1996
.%V vol. 3
.%O Operating System Writer's Manual
.Re
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
device first appeared in
.Fx 2.2 .
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
driver was written by
.An Garrett A. Wollman ,
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science.