[PATCH v1 00/13] perf/x86/amd: Add AMD Fam19h Branch Sampling support

From: Stephane Eranian
Date: Thu Sep 09 2021 - 03:58:41 EST


This patch series adds support for the AMD Fam19h 16-deep branch sampling
feature as described in the AMD PPR Fam19h Model 01h Revision B1 section 2.1.13.
This is a model specific extension. It is not an architected AMD feature.

The Branch Sampling Feature (BRS) provides the statistical taken branch information necessary
to enable autoFDO-style optimization by compilers, i.e., basic block execution counts.

BRS operates with a 16-deep saturating buffer in MSR registers. There is no
hardware branch type filtering. All control flow changes are captured. BRS
relies on specific programming of the core PMU of Fam19h. In particular,
the following requirements must be met:
- the sampling period be greater than 16 (BRS depth)
- the sampling period must use fixed and not frequency mode

BRS interacts with the NMI interrupt as well. Because enabling BRS is expensive,
it is only activated after P event occurrences, where P is the desired sampling period.
At P occurrences of the event, the counter overflows, the CPU catches the NMI interrupt,
activates BRS for 16 branches until it saturates, and then delivers the NMI to the kernel.
Between the overflow and the time BRS activates more branches may be executed skewing the period.
All along, the sampling event keeps counting. The skid may be attenuated by reducing the sampling
period by 16.

BRS is integrated into perf_events seamlessly via the same PERF_RECORD_BRANCH_STACK sample
format. BRS generates branch perf_branch_entry records in the sampling buffer. There is
no prediction or latency information supported. The branches are stored in reverse order of
execution. The most recent branch is the first entry in each record.

Because BRS must be stopped when a CPU goes into low power mode, the series includes patches
to add callbacks on low power entry and exit (mwait and halt).

Given that there is no privilege filterting with BRS, the kernel implements filtering on
privlege level.

This version adds a few simple modifications to perf record and report.
1. add the branch-brs event as a builtin such as it can used directly: perf record -e branch-brs ...
2. improve error handling for AMD IBS and is contributed by Kim Phillips.
3. use the better error handling to improve error handling for branch sampling
4. add two new sort dimensions to help display the branch sampling information. Because there is no
latency information associated with the branch sampling feature perf report would collapse all
samples within a function into a single histogram entry. This is expected because the default
sort mode for PERF_SAMPLE_BRANCH_STACK is symbol_from/symbol_to. This propagates to the annotation.

For more detailed view of the branch samples, the new sort dimensions addr_from,addr_to can be used
instead as follows:

$ perf report --sort=overhead,comm,dso,addr_from,addr_to
# Overhead Command Shared Object Source Address Target Address
# ........ ............... ................ .............. ..............
#
4.21% test_prg test_prg [.] test_threa+0x3c [.] test_threa+0x4
4.14% test_prg test_prg [.] test_threa+0x3e [.] test_threa+0x2
4.10% test_prg test_prg [.] test_threa+0x4 [.] test_threa+0x3a
4.07% test_prg test_prg [.] test_threa+0x2 [.] test_threa+0x3c

Versus the default output:

$ perf report
# Overhead Command Source Shared Object Source Symbol Target Symbol Basic Block Cycles
# ........ ............... .................... ................................... ................................... ..................
#
99.52% test_prg test_prg [.] test_thread [.] test_thread -

BRS can be used with any sampling event. However, it is recommended to use the RETIRED_BRANCH
event because it matches what the BRS captures. For convenience, a pseudo event matching the
branches captured by BRS is exported by the kernel (branch-brs):

$ perf record -b -e cpu/branch-brs/ -c 1000037 test

$ perf report -D
56531696056126 0x193c000 [0x1a8]: PERF_RECORD_SAMPLE(IP, 0x2): 18122/18230: 0x401d24 period: 1000037 addr: 0
... branch stack: nr:16
..... 0: 0000000000401d24 -> 0000000000401d5a 0 cycles 0
..... 1: 0000000000401d5c -> 0000000000401d24 0 cycles 0
..... 2: 0000000000401d22 -> 0000000000401d5c 0 cycles 0
..... 3: 0000000000401d5e -> 0000000000401d22 0 cycles 0
..... 4: 0000000000401d20 -> 0000000000401d5e 0 cycles 0
..... 5: 0000000000401d3e -> 0000000000401d20 0 cycles 0
..... 6: 0000000000401d42 -> 0000000000401d3e 0 cycles 0
..... 7: 0000000000401d3c -> 0000000000401d42 0 cycles 0
..... 8: 0000000000401d44 -> 0000000000401d3c 0 cycles 0
..... 9: 0000000000401d3a -> 0000000000401d44 0 cycles 0
..... 10: 0000000000401d46 -> 0000000000401d3a 0 cycles 0
..... 11: 0000000000401d38 -> 0000000000401d46 0 cycles 0
..... 12: 0000000000401d48 -> 0000000000401d38 0 cycles 0
..... 13: 0000000000401d36 -> 0000000000401d48 0 cycles 0
..... 14: 0000000000401d4a -> 0000000000401d36 0 cycles 0
..... 15: 0000000000401d34 -> 0000000000401d4a 0 cycles 0
... thread: test:18230
...... dso: test

Special thanks to Kim Phillips @ AMD for the testing, reviews and contributions.

Kim Phillips (1):
perf tools: improve IBS error handling

Stephane Eranian (12):
perf/core: add union to struct perf_branch_entry
x86/cpufeatures: add AMD Fam19h Branch Sampling feature
perf/x86/amd: add AMD Fam19h Branch Sampling support
perf/x86/amd: add branch-brs helper event for Fam19h BRS
perf/x86/amd: enable branch sampling priv level filtering
perf/x86/amd: add AMD branch sampling period adjustment
perf/core: add idle hooks
perf/x86/core: add idle hooks
perf/x86/amd: add idle hooks for branch sampling
perf tools: add branch-brs as a new event
perf tools: improve error handling of AMD Branch Sampling
perf report: add addr_from/addr_to sort dimensions

arch/x86/events/amd/Makefile | 2 +-
arch/x86/events/amd/brs.c | 342 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
arch/x86/events/amd/core.c | 222 ++++++++++++++++++-
arch/x86/events/core.c | 22 +-
arch/x86/events/intel/lbr.c | 13 +-
arch/x86/events/perf_event.h | 106 +++++++--
arch/x86/include/asm/cpufeatures.h | 1 +
arch/x86/include/asm/msr-index.h | 4 +
arch/x86/include/asm/mwait.h | 6 +-
include/linux/perf_event.h | 8 +
include/uapi/linux/perf_event.h | 19 +-
kernel/events/core.c | 58 +++++
kernel/sched/idle.c | 19 +-
tools/perf/util/evsel.c | 50 +++++
tools/perf/util/hist.c | 2 +
tools/perf/util/hist.h | 2 +
tools/perf/util/parse-events.l | 1 +
tools/perf/util/sort.c | 128 +++++++++++
tools/perf/util/sort.h | 2 +
19 files changed, 964 insertions(+), 43 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 arch/x86/events/amd/brs.c

--
2.33.0.153.gba50c8fa24-goog