intel-acr.txt

Intel Auto Counter Reload Support
---------------------------------
Support for Intel Auto Counter Reload in perf tools

Auto counter reload provides a means for software to specify to hardware
that certain counters, if supported, should be automatically reloaded
upon overflow of chosen counters. By taking a sample only if the rate of
one event exceeds some threshold relative to the rate of another event,
this feature enables software to sample based on the relative rate of
two or more events. To enable this, the user must provide a sample period
term and a bitmask ("acr_mask") for each relevant event specifying the
counters in an event group to reload if the event's specified sample
period is exceeded.

For example, if the user desires to measure a scenario when IPC > 2,
the event group might look like the one below:

	perf record -e {cpu_atom/instructions,period=200000,acr_mask=0x2/, \
	cpu_atom/cycles,period=100000,acr_mask=0x3/} -- true

In this case, if the "instructions" counter exceeds the sample period of
200000, the second counter, "cycles", will be reset and a sample will be
taken. If "cycles" is exceeded first, both counters in the group will be
reset. In this way, samples will only be taken for cases where IPC > 2.

The acr_mask term is a hexadecimal value representing a bitmask of the
events in the group to be reset when the period is exceeded. In the
example above, "instructions" is assigned an acr_mask of 0x2, meaning
only the second event in the group is reloaded and a sample is taken
for the first event. "cycles" is assigned an acr_mask of 0x3, meaning
that both event counters will be reset if the sample period is exceeded
first.

ratio-to-prev Event Term
------------------------
To simplify this, an event term "ratio-to-prev" is provided which is used
alongside the sample period term n or the -c/--count option. This would
allow users to specify the desired relative rate between events as a
ratio. Note: Both events compared must belong to the same PMU.

The command above would then become

	perf record -e {cpu_atom/instructions/, \
	cpu_atom/cycles,period=100000,ratio-to-prev=0.5/} -- true

ratio-to-prev is the ratio of the event using the term relative
to the previous event in the group, which will always be 1,
for a 1:0.5 or 2:1 ratio.

To sample for IPC < 2 for example, the events need to be reordered:

	perf record -e {cpu_atom/cycles/, \
	cpu_atom/instructions,period=200000,ratio-to-prev=2.0/} -- true