Perf Events from inside of Qemu

The following patch enables simulated perf event support inside of Qemu for x86_64 systems. It enables support for the AMD performance MSRs enough to return values for the "retired_instructions" (both user and kernel) and "cpu_clk_unhalted" events.

Usage:

Apply the patch
Boot into Qemu, using a kernel using 2.6.32 or newer. Use the "-cpu phenom" option to select an AMD machine.
Use the "perf" utility (or other method of accessing perf counters, such as PAPI) as you normally would.

Sample output:

perf_output.txt

Patches (against git tree from 4 November 2010):

qemu_perf.patch
qemu_perf_debug.patch -- version of the prints debug information to a file.

Todo

Interrupts on overflow
Implement events other than instructions and cycles

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