Measuring last-level cache misses through PAPI on AMD machine running Ubuntu Linux

Question

It looks like by default PAPI (Performance Application Programming Interface) is not supporting to measure last-level cache misses (L3) on my AMD machine running Ubuntu Linux. However, I can measure L1/L2 cache misses. You can see the details of the processor below. I heard that it is possible to measure last level cache misses if install appropriate driver. Could some one provide me more information about this, please?

$ uname -a
Linux 2.6.32-21-server #32-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 09:17:34 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor   : 0
vendor_id   : AuthenticAMD
cpu family  : 16
model       : 8
model name  : Six-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 8431
fpu     : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level : 5
wp      : yes
flags       : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nonstop_tsc extd_apicid pni monitor cx16 popcnt lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw ibs skinit wdt
bogomips    : 4788.66
TLB size    : 1024 4K pages
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 48 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps hwpstate

Answer 1

Try using Valgrind's cache grind profiler or perf or perf expert. All of these will give LastLevel cache details as L3 turns out to be in most of the cases.

U need to load all these modules.

*Command for executing:* *VALGRIND:* valgrind --tool=cachegrind ./exe

PERFEXPERT: perfexpert_run_exp ./exe

PERF: perf stat -e ... -e ./exe