Clock Cycles Count Variation Cortex A53 AArch64

1

I try to count cpu clock cycles for my function on ARM Cortex-A53 using following function:

#include <sys/time.h>
    readticks(unsigned int *result, int enabled)
    {
      struct timeval t;
      unsigned int cc;
      unsigned int val;
      if (!enabled) {
               // program the performance-counter control-register:
             asm volatile("msr pmcr_el0, %0" : : "r" (17));
             //enable all counters
             asm volatile("msr PMCNTENSET_EL0, %0" : : "r" (0x8000000f));
            //clear the overflow 
            asm volatile("msr PMOVSCLR_EL0, %0" : : "r" (0x8000000f));
             enabled = 1;
      }
      //read the coutner value
      asm volatile("mrs %0, PMCCNTR_EL0" : "=r" (cc));
      gettimeofday(&t,(struct timezone *) 0);
      result[0] = cc;
      result[1] = t.tv_usec;
      result[2] = t.tv_sec;
    }

and here is my user space application:

#include <stio.h>
#include <inttypes.h>
#include <time.h>

int main(){
unsigned int init[3] = {0};
unsigned int start[3] = {0};
unsigned int end[3] = {0};
unsigned int overhead = 0;

readticks(init, 0);
readticks(start, 1);
readticks(end, 1);

overhead = end[0] - start[0];
readticks(init, 0);
readticks(start, 1);
foo(); //This is my function 
readticks(end, 1);

end[0] = end[0] - start[0] - overhead;
printf("clock cycles= %d\n", end[0]);
return 0;

}

When I run my code for several times, I have got different clock cycles with relatively high variation (almost 5000). My code should be run around 4000 clock cycles, but I have got 4500 - 9500 clock cycles. Is there any way around that gives me more accurate clock cycles count?

c
arm
clock
cortex-a
asked on Stack Overflow Feb 10, 2016 by A23149577

1 Answer

0

use the following macro

    #define mfcp(rn)    ({u32 rval = 0U; \
             __asm__ __volatile__(\
               "mrc " rn "\n"\
               : "=r" (rval)\
             );\
             rval;\
             })
#endif

call mfcp with counter register

uint64_t t1,t2;
t1 = mfcp(CNTPCT_EL0);
// your code
t2 = mfcp(CNTPCT_EL0);
answered on Stack Overflow Feb 5, 2020 by Sakshama Ghoslya

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