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- ;
- ; *** Listing 1 ***
- ;
- ; *******************************************************
- ; * From The Zen of Assembler. Appears by permission of *
- ; * Scott, Foresman & Company. *
- ; *******************************************************
- ;
- ; Uses the 8253 timer to time the performance of code that takes
- ; less than about 54 milliseconds to execute, with a resolution
- ; of better than 10 microseconds.
- ;
- ; By Michael Abrash 4/14/89
- ;
- ; Externally callable routines:
- ;
- ; TimerOn: Starts the timer, with interrupts disabled.
- ;
- ; TimerOff: Stops the timer, saves the timer count,
- ; times the overhead code, and restores interrupts to the
- ; state they were in when TimerOn was called.
- ;
- ; TimerReport: Prints the net time that passed between starting
- ; and stopping the timer.
- ;
- ; Note: If more than about 54 ms passes between TimerOn and
- ; TimerOff calls, the timer turns over and the count is
- ; inaccurate. When this happens, an error message is displayed
- ; instead of a count.
- ;
- ; Note: Interrupts *MUST* be left off between calls to TimerOn
- ; and TimerOff for accurate timing and for detection of
- ; timer overflow.
- ;
- ; Note: These routines can introduce slight inaccuracies into the
- ; system clock count for each code section timed even if
- ; timer 0 doesn't overflow. If timer 0 does overflow, the
- ; system clock can become slow by virtually any amount of
- ; time, since the system clock can't advance while the
- ; timer is timing. Consequently, it's a good idea to reboot
- ; at the end of a timing session. (The battery-backed clock,
- ; if any, is not affected.)
- ;
- ; All registers, and all flags except the interrupt flag, are
- ; preserved by all routines. Interrupts are enabled and then disabled
- ; by TimerOn, and are restored by TimerOff to the state they were
- ; in when TimerOn was called.
- ;
-
- CODE segment word public 'CODE'
- assume CS:CODE, DS:nothing
- public _TimerOn, _TimerOff, _TimerReport
-
- ;
- ; Base address of the 8253 timer chip.
- ;
- BASE_8253 equ 40h
- ;
- ; The address of the timer 0 count registers in the 8253.
- ;
- TIMER_0_8253 equ BASE_8253 + 0
- ;
- ; The address of the mode register in the 8253.
- ;
- MODE_8253 equ BASE_8253 + 3
- ;
- ; The address of Operation Command Word 3 in the 8259 Programmable
- ; Interrupt Controller (PIC) (write only, and writable only when
- ; bit 4 of the byte written to this address is 0 and bit 3 is 1).
- ;
- OCW3 equ 20h
- ;
- ; The address of the Interrupt Request register in the 8259 PIC
- ; (read only, and readable only when bit 1 of OCW3 = 1 and bit 0
- ; of OCW3 = 0).
- ;
- IRR equ 20h
- ;
- ; Macro to emulate a POPF instruction while fixing the bug in some
- ; 80286 chips which allows interrupts to occur during a POPF even when
- ; interrupts remain disabled.
- ;
- MPOPF macro
- local p1, p2
- jmp short p2
- p1: iret ;jump to pushed address & pop flags
- p2: push cs ;construct far return address to
- call p1 ; the next instruction
- endm
-
- ;
- ; Macro to delay briefly to ensure that enough time has elapsed
- ; between successive I/O accesses so that the device being accessed
- ; can respond to both. Jumping flushes the prefetch queue, forcing
- ; a memory access.
- ;
- DELAY macro
- jmp $+2
- jmp $+2
- jmp $+2
- endm
-
- originalflags dw ? ;processor flags in effect
- ; when TimerOn called
- timedcount dw ? ;timer 0 count when the timer
- ; is stopped
- referencecount dw ? ;number of counts required to
- ; execute timer overhead code
- overflowflag db ? ;used to indicate whether the
- ; timer overflowed during the
- ; timing interval
- ;
- ; String printed to report results.
- ;
- output$ label byte
- db 0dh, 0ah, 'Timed count: ', 5 dup (?)
- asciicountend label byte
- db ' microseconds', 0dh, 0ah
- db '$'
- ;
- ; String printed to report timer overflow.
- ;
- overflow$ label byte
- db 0dh, 0ah
- db '****************************************************'
- db 0dh, 0ah
- db '* The timer overflowed; the interval timed was too *'
- db 0dh, 0ah
- db '* long for the timer to measure. *'
- db 0dh, 0ah
- db '****************************************************'
- db 0dh, 0ah
- db '$'
-
- ;********************************************************************
- ;* Routine called to start timing. *
- ;********************************************************************
-
- _TimerOn proc near
-
- ;
- ; Save the context of the program being timed.
- ;
- push ax
- pushf
- pop ax ;get flags so we can force
- ; interrupts off when leaving
- ; this routine
- mov CS:[originalflags],ax
- and ax,0fdffh ;set pushed interrupt flag
- ; to 0
- push ax
- ;
- ; Turn on interrupts, so the timer interrupt can occur if it's
- ; pending.
- ;
- sti
- ;
- ; Set timer 0 of the 8253 to mode 2 (divide-by-N), to cause
- ; linear counting rather than count-by-two counting. Also
- ; leaves the 8253 waiting for the initial timer 0 count to
- ; be loaded.
- ;
- mov al,00110100b ;mode 2
- out MODE_8253,al
- ;
- ; Set the timer count to 0, so we know we won't get another
- ; timer interrupt right away.
- ; Note: this introduces an inaccuracy of up to 54 ms in the system
- ; clock count each time it is executed.
- ;
- DELAY
- sub al,al
- out TIMER_0_8253,al ;lsb
- DELAY
- out TIMER_0_8253,al ;msb
- ;
- ; Wait before clearing interrupts to allow the interrupt generated
- ; when switching from mode 3 to mode 2 to be recognized. This delay
- ; must be at least 210 ns long to allow time for that interrupt to
- ; occur. Here, 10 jumps are used for the delay to ensure that the
- ; delay time will be more than long enough even on fast 80386
- ; computers.
- ;
- rept 10
- jmp $+2
- endm
- ;
- ; Disable interrupts to get an accurate count.
- ;
- cli
- ;
- ; Set the timer count to 0 again to start the timing interval.
- ;
- mov al,00110100b ;set up to load initial
- out MODE_8253,al ; timer count
- DELAY
- sub al,al
- out TIMER_0_8253,al ;load count lsb
- DELAY
- out TIMER_0_8253,al ;load count msb
- ;
- ; Restore the context and return.
- ;
- MPOPF ;keeps interrupts off
- pop ax
- ret
-
- _TimerOn endp
-
- ;********************************************************************
- ;* Routine called to stop timing and get count. *
- ;********************************************************************
-
- _TimerOff proc near
-
- ;
- ; Save the context of the program being timed.
- ;
- push ax
- push cx
- pushf
- ;
- ; Latch the count.
- ;
- mov al,00000000b ;latch timer 0
- out MODE_8253,al
- ;
- ; See if the timer has overflowed by checking the 8259 for a pending
- ; timer interrupt.
- ;
- mov al,00001010b ;OCW3, set up to read
- out OCW3,al ; Interrupt Request register
- DELAY
- in al,IRR ;read Interrupt Request
- ; register
- and al,1 ;set AL to 1 if IRQ0 (the
- ; timer interrupt) is pending
- mov CS:[overflowflag],al ;yes, it did indeed overflow
- ;
- ; Allow interrupts to happen again.
- ;
- sti
- ;
- ; Read out the count we latched earlier.
- ;
- in al,TIMER_0_8253 ;least significant byte
- DELAY
- mov ah,al
- in al,TIMER_0_8253 ;most significant byte
- xchg ah,al
- neg ax ;convert from countdown
- ; remaining to elapsed
- ; count
- mov CS:[timedcount],ax
- ; Time a zero-length code fragment, to get a reference for how
- ; much overhead this routine has. Time it 16 times and average it,
- ; for accuracy, rounding the result.
- ; Note: REferenceTimerOn resets the timer to 0, which introduces
- ; an inaccuracy of up to 54 ms in the system clock count each time
- ; it is executed.
- ;
- mov CS:[referencecount],0
- mov cx,16
- cli ;interrupts off to allow a
- ; precise reference count
- RefLoop:
- call ReferenceTimerOn
- call ReferenceTimerOff
- loop RefLoop
- sti
- add CS:[referencecount],8 ;total + (0.5 * 16)
- mov cl,4
- shr CS:[referencecount],cl ;(total) / 16 + 0.5
- ;
- ; Restore original interrupt state.
- ;
- pop ax ;retrieve flags when called
- mov cx,CS:[originalflags] ;get back the original flags
- and ch,not 0fdh ;only care about original
- ; interrupt flag...
- and ah,0fdh ;...keep all other flags in
- ; their current condition
- or ah,ch ;make flags word with original
- ; interrupt flag
- push ax ;prepare flags to be popped
- ;
- ; Restore the context of the program being timed and return to it.
- ;
- MPOPF ;restore the flags with the
- ; original interrupt state
- pop cx
- pop ax
- ret
-
- _TimerOff endp
-
- ;
- ; Called by TimerOff to start timer for overhead measurements.
- ;
-
- ReferenceTimerOn proc near
- ;
- ; Save the context of the program being timed.
- ;
- push ax
- pushf ;interrupts are already off
- ;
- ; Set timer 0 of the 8253 to mode 2 (divide-by-N), to cause
- ; linear counting rather than count-by-two counting.
- ;
- mov al,00110100b ;set up to load
- out MODE_8253,al ; initial timer count
- DELAY
- ;
- ; Set the timer count to 0.
- ;
- sub al,al
- out TIMER_0_8253,al ;load count lsb
- DELAY
- out TIMER_0_8253,al ;load count msb
- ;
- ; Restore the context of the program being timed and return to it.
- ;
- MPOPF
- pop ax
- ret
-
- ReferenceTimerOn endp
-
- ;
- ; Called by TimerOff to stop timer and add result to referencecount
- ; for overhead measurements.
- ;
-
- ReferenceTimerOff proc near
- ;
- ; Save the context of the program being timed.
- ;
- push ax
- push cx
- pushf
- ;
- ; Latch the count and read it.
- ;
- mov al,00000000b ;latch timer 0
- out MODE_8253,al
- DELAY
- in al,TIMER_0_8253 ;lsb
- DELAY
- mov ah,al
- in al,TIMER_0_8253 ;msb
- xchg ah,al
- neg ax ;convert from countdown
- ; remaining to amount
- ; counted down
- add CS:[referencecount],ax
- ;
- ; Restore the context of the program being timed and return to it.
- ;
- MPOPF
- pop cx
- pop ax
- ret
-
- ReferenceTimerOff endp
-
- ;********************************************************************
- ;* Routine called to report timing results. *
- ;********************************************************************
-
- _TimerReport proc near
-
- pushf
- push ax
- push bx
- push cx
- push dx
- push si
- push DS
- ;
- push CS
- pop DS
- assume DS:CODE
- ;
- ; Check for timer 0 overflow.
- ;
- cmp [overflowflag],0
- jz PrintGoodCount
- mov dx,offset overflow$ ;'The timer overflowed'
- mov ah,9
- int 21h
- jmp short EndTimerReport
- ;
- ; Convert net count to decimal ASCII in microseconds.
- ;
- PrintGoodCount:
- mov ax,[timedcount]
- sub ax,[referencecount]
- mov si,offset asciicountend - 1
- ;
- ; Convert count to microseconds by multiplying by .8381.
- ;
- mov dx,8381
- mul dx
- mov bx,10000
- div bx ;* .8381 = * 8381 / 10000
- ;
- ; Convert time in microseconds to 5 decimal ASCII digits.
- ;
- mov bx,10
- mov cx,5
- CTSLoop:
- sub dx,dx
- div bx
- add dl,'0'
- mov [si],dl
- dec si
- loop CTSLoop
- ;
- ; Print the results.
- ;
- mov ah,9
- mov dx,offset output$ ;'Timed count'
- int 21h
- ;
- EndTimerReport:
- pop DS
- pop si
- pop dx
- pop cx
- pop bx
- pop ax
- MPOPF
- ret
-
- _TimerReport endp
-
- CODE ends
- end