Hardware-based tick counters for high-precision benchmarks

x86_64: executes RDTSC CPU instruction to read the time-stamp counter.

AArch64: reads value of the CNTVCT_EL0 counter-timer register.

Tested on platforms

x86_64 (Intel® Core™ i7)
AArch64 (Apple M1 Pro)

For usage samples please look at src/bin/sample.rs

Basic usage

use tick_counter::*;
let start = tick_counter_start();
// ... lines of code to benchmark
let elapsed_ticks = tick_counter_stop() - start;
println!("Number of elapsed ticks: {}", elapsed_ticks);

Sample usage

use std::{thread, time, env::consts};
use tick_counter::*;

println!("\nEnvironment: {}/{} {}", consts::OS, consts::FAMILY, consts::ARCH);

let (counter_frequency, accuracy) = tick_counter_frequency();
println!("Tick frequency, MHZ: {}", counter_frequency as f64 / 1e6_f64);
let estimation_source = match accuracy {
    TickCounterFrequencyBase::Hardware => "hardware".to_string(),
    TickCounterFrequencyBase::Measured(duration) => format!("software, estimated in {:?}", duration)
};
println!("Tick frequency is provided by: {}", estimation_source);

let counter_accuracy = tick_counter_precision_nanoseconds(counter_frequency);
println!("Tick accuracy, nanoseconds: {}", counter_accuracy);

let counter_start = tick_counter_start();
thread::sleep(time::Duration::from_secs(1));
let counter_stop = tick_counter_stop();

println!("Tick counter start: {}", counter_start);
println!("Tick counter stop: {}", counter_stop);

let elapsed_ticks = counter_stop - counter_start;
println!("Elapsed ticks count in ~1 seconds thread::sleep(): {}", elapsed_ticks);

let elapsed_nanoseconds = (elapsed_ticks as f64) * counter_accuracy;
println!("Elapsed nanoseconds according to elapsed ticks: {}", elapsed_nanoseconds);

Outputs

1. Macbook Pro 16 2021 / Apple Silicon

Apple M1 Pro
MacOS Ventura 13.4, Darwin Kernel Version 22.5.0

Output:

Environment: macos/unix aarch64
Tick frequency, MHZ: 24
Tick frequency is provided by: hardware
Tick accuracy, nanoseconds: 41.666666666666664
Tick counter start: 48031196281005
Tick counter stop: 48031220402058
Elapsed ticks count in ~1 seconds thread::sleep(): 24121053
Elapsed nanoseconds according to elapsed ticks: 1005043875

2. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS / Intel® Core™ i7

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
Linux 5.19.0-46-generic #47~22.04.1-Ubuntu

Output:

Environment: linux/unix x86_64
Tick frequency, MHZ: 3430.481526
Tick frequency is provided by: software, estimated in 1s
Tick accuracy, nanoseconds: 0.29150426621478326
Tick counter start: 9639567570396
Tick counter stop: 9642998073707
Elapsed ticks count in ~1 seconds thread::sleep(): 3430503311
Elapsed nanoseconds according to elapsed ticks: 1000006350.4204394