Re: [PATCH 5/5] perf, x86: Prefer RDPMC over RDMSR for reading counters

Andi Kleen
2012-06-06T14:16:46Z

On Wed, Jun 06, 2012 at 12:46:19PM +0200, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Tue, 2012-06-05 at 17:56 -0700, Andi Kleen wrote:
> > From: Andi Kleen <ak@linux.intel.com>
> >
> > RDPMC is much faster than RDMSR for reading performance counters,
> > since it's not serializing. Use it if possible in the perf handler.
> >
> > Only tested on Sandy Bridge, so I only enabled it there so far.
>
> That's just stupid.. I took Vince's patch from a while back.

What do you mean? It's significantly faster to read the counters this
way, because it avoids serialization and other overhead.

Vince's patch only enabled it for user space I believe, This is for lowering
the kernel PMI handler overhead.

-Andi

--
ak@linux.intel.com -- Speaking for myself only