Getting timing consistency in Linux
- by Jim Hunziker
I can't seem to get a simple program (with lots of memory access) to achieve consistent timing in Linux. I'm using a 2.6 kernel, and the program is being run on a dual-core processor with realtime priority. I'm trying to disable cache effects by declaring the memory arrays as volatile. Below are the results and the program. What are some possible sources of the outliers?
Results:
Number of trials: 100
Range: 0.021732s to 0.085596s
Average Time: 0.058094s
Standard Deviation: 0.006944s
Extreme Outliers (2 SDs away from mean): 7
Average Time, excluding extreme outliers: 0.059273s
Program:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <sched.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
#define NUM_POINTS 5000000
#define REPS 100
unsigned long long getTimestamp() {
unsigned long long usecCount;
struct timeval timeVal;
gettimeofday(&timeVal, 0);
usecCount = timeVal.tv_sec * (unsigned long long) 1000000;
usecCount += timeVal.tv_usec;
return (usecCount);
}
double convertTimestampToSecs(unsigned long long timestamp) {
return (timestamp / (double) 1000000);
}
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
unsigned long long start, stop;
double times[REPS];
double sum = 0;
double scale, avg, newavg, median;
double stddev = 0;
double maxval = -1.0, minval = 1000000.0;
int i, j, freq, count;
int outliers = 0;
struct sched_param sparam;
sched_getparam(getpid(), &sparam);
sparam.sched_priority = sched_get_priority_max(SCHED_FIFO);
sched_setscheduler(getpid(), SCHED_FIFO, &sparam);
volatile float* data;
volatile float* results;
data = calloc(NUM_POINTS, sizeof(float));
results = calloc(NUM_POINTS, sizeof(float));
for (i = 0; i < REPS; ++i) {
start = getTimestamp();
for (j = 0; j < NUM_POINTS; ++j) {
results[j] = data[j];
}
stop = getTimestamp();
times[i] = convertTimestampToSecs(stop-start);
}
free(data);
free(results);
for (i = 0; i < REPS; i++) {
sum += times[i];
if (times[i] > maxval)
maxval = times[i];
if (times[i] < minval)
minval = times[i];
}
avg = sum/REPS;
for (i = 0; i < REPS; i++)
stddev += (times[i] - avg)*(times[i] - avg);
stddev /= REPS;
stddev = sqrt(stddev);
for (i = 0; i < REPS; i++) {
if (times[i] > avg + 2*stddev || times[i] < avg - 2*stddev) {
sum -= times[i];
outliers++;
}
}
newavg = sum/(REPS-outliers);
printf("Number of trials: %d\n", REPS);
printf("Range: %fs to %fs\n", minval, maxval);
printf("Average Time: %fs\n", avg);
printf("Standard Deviation: %fs\n", stddev);
printf("Extreme Outliers (2 SDs away from mean): %d\n", outliers);
printf("Average Time, excluding extreme outliers: %fs\n", newavg);
return 0;
}
