Overview

This project is a memory and cache performance testing tool for ARMv8 systems. It is used to estimate the cache size and test the cache or memory performance of CPU. The tool supports multi-threaded parallel testing to evaluate the cache performance when multiple clusters are working together, making it suitable for cross-compilation and execution on ARMv8 systems.

Features

• Cache Size Estimation and Performance Testing: Measures cache size and performance on ARMv8.
• memcpy Performance Test: Uses SIMD instructions from the GNU C Library to test memcpy performance.
• Read/Write Bandwidth Testing: Uses SIMD code from the "Bandwidth: A Memory Bandwidth Benchmark" tool to test read/write rates with varying data sizes.
• Matrix Multiplication Testing: Uses the SIMD to test matrix multiplication performance.
• Multi-threaded Support: Allows for parallel testing across multiple clusters to analyze cache performance in multi-core environments by using OpenMP.
• Cross-Compilation Ready: Designed for easy cross-compilation and execution on embedded ARMv8 systems.
• Graphical Output: Generates line charts of performance results using gnuplot.

Usage

• -s: configure the maximum test data size. The default value is 256MB.

• -i: set test loops. The default setting is dynamically adjusted based on the current test size.

• -n: set the program's nice value. The default is -20 (the highest priority).

• -f: use which routine to test. [memcpy | bandwidth | matrix].

• -j: set a custom task name.

• -t: set the maximum number of parallel threads. The default is the number of physical threads on the system.

• -d: save the test results to a file, then you can use draw2html.py to generate a more friendly HTML report.

If you need to set CPU affinity, you can use OpenMP environment variables:

For example, to bind threads to cores 1 and 3, use the following OpenMP environment variables:

export OMP_PLACES="{1,3}"
export OMP_PROC_BIND=close

Read this for more details: OMP_PLACES

Dependencies

This tool requires gnuplot to generate performance line charts. Before using the tool, ensure that gnuplot is installed and properly configured on your ARMv8 embedded device.

Download 'gnuplot' from Build it for arm64

./configure --host=arm64 CC=aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc --prefix=$(pwd)/install
make
make install

Open Source Software Used

This project uses and modifies code from the following open source software projects and is released in accordance with their respective licenses:

1. GNU C Library - Licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1 or later.

   • Original source: GNU C Library

2. Bandwidth: A Memory Bandwidth Benchmark - Licensed under the GNU General Public License v2 or later.

   • Original source: Bandwidth: A Memory Bandwidth Benchmark

All modifications made to these projects are released under the terms of their respective licenses.