Re: [RFC PATCH 09/10] drivers/perf: Add support for ARMv8.2 Statistical Profiling Extension

[Peter Zijlstra]

On Tue, Jan 03, 2017 at 06:10:26PM +0000, Will Deacon wrote:
> The ARMv8.2 architecture introduces the Statistical Profiling Extension
> (SPE). SPE provides a way to configure and collect profiling samples
> from the CPU in the form of a trace buffer, which can be mapped directly
> into userspace using the perf AUX buffer infrastructure.
> 
> This patch adds support for SPE in the form of a new perf driver.
> 

Can you give a little high level overview of what exactly SPE is?