WEIGHTED EVENT COUNTING METHOD FOR PROCESSOR PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT, PROCESSOR, AND WEIGHTED PERFORMANCE COUNTER CIRCUIT (WEIGHTED EVENT COUNTING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSOR PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT)

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide low latency and low error performance measurement capability.

SOLUTION: In a weighted event counting system and method for processor performance measurements, a weighted performance counter (WPC) accumulates a performance count according to a plurality of event signals provided from functional units in the processor. Differing weights are applied to the event signals according to the correlation between each event and processor performance. The weights may be provided from programmable registers, so that the weights can be adjusted under program control. The event signals may be combined to reduce the bit-width of the set of event signal, with mutually-exclusive events merged in single fields of the combinatorial result and events having the same weights merged according to a sub-total. The weights are applied to the combinatorial result and used to update a performance count. The performance count can then be used by power management software or hardware to make adjustments in operating parameters of the processor.

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