Software Tuning, Performance Optimization & Platform Monitoring
Discussion regarding monitoring and software tuning methodologies, Performance Monitoring Unit (PMU) of Intel microprocessors, and platform updating.

[PCM] L2/L3 Cache Miss Values Are Alway Zero on Sandy Bridge

mikeb01
Beginner
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Hi,
I've ported the PCM Counter code across to Darwin (Mac OS), the msrtest and cpucounterstest programs both run and produce sensible values for instruction and cycle count, however the L2 & L3 cache values are always zero. Are these counters supported on my CPU revision (below) or is more likely that I've introduced a bug in my port?
CPU:
machdep.cpu.brand_string: Intel Core i7-2677M CPU @ 1.80GHz
machdep.cpu.family: 6
machdep.cpu.model: 42
machdep.cpu.extmodel: 2
machdep.cpu.extfamily: 0
machdep.cpu.stepping: 7
Mike.
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Roman_D_Intel
Employee
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Hi Mike,

your processor (model 42)is supported in the recent version of Intel PCM.

How do you access model specific registers on Mac OS? Does Mac OS have an "msr" kernelmodule (like in Linux)?

Thanks,
Roman
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mikeb01
Beginner
1,141 Views
Hi Roman,
Thanks for the prompt reply! It was a bug in my code, I wasn't setting the cpu_model correctly. Fixed and I now see L2/L3 cache misses.
Mac OS doesn't support this out of the box. I've cobbled together a kernel module that allows me to access MSRs and build CPU topology information. I've replicated the functionality of /dev/cpu/*/msr and /proc/cpuinfo.
Mike.
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Roman_D_Intel
Employee
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Hi Mike,

great to hear that it works for you.

Roman
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