LIBPFM(3)

NAME
libpfm_powerpc - support for IBM PowerPC and POWER processor families

SYNOPSIS
#include <perfmon/pfmlib.h>
#include <perfmon/pfmlib_powerpc.h>

DESCRIPTION
The libpfm library provides support for the IBM PowerPC and POWER processor families. Specifically, it currently provides support for the following processors: PPC970(FX,GX), PPC970MP POWER4, POWER4+, POWER5, POWER5+, and POWER6.

MODEL-SPECIFIC PARAMETERS
At present, the model_in and model_out model-specific input and output parameters are not used by pfm_dispatch_events() function. For future compatibility, NULLs must be passed for these arguments.

COMBINING EVENTS IN A SET
As with many architecture's PMU hardware design, events can not be combined together arbitrarily in the same event set, even if there are a sufficient number of counters available. This implementation for IBM PowerPC/POWER bases the event compatibility on a set of previously-defined compatible event groups. If the events placed in an event set are all members of one of the predefined event groups, a call to the pfm_dispatch_events() function will be successful. With the current interface, there is no way to discover apriori which events are compatible, so application software that wishes to combine events must do so by trial and error, possibly using multiplexed event sets to count events that cannot otherwise be combined in the same set.

ERRORS
Refer to the description of the pfm_dispatch_events() function for errors.

SEE ALSO
pfm_dispatch_events(3) and set of examples shipped with the library

AUTHOR
Corey Ashford <cjashfor@us.ibm.com>