[boost] Request: RDTSC

From: dherring_at_[hidden]
Date: 2008-06-09 13:11:03

The CPU timestamp counter is a high-resolution clock source useful for 
profiling code or controlling tight timing loops.  AMD/Intel CPUs support 
this via the RDTSC opcode, and other CPUs often provide similar 
functionality.

Apparently MS compilers support an __rdtsc() intrinsic, but I couldn't 
find one for gcc.

The code at
http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/~kazutomo/rdtsc.html
seems to do a good job for gcc; it avoids a couple bugs in code found at 
other sites.

Any possibility of a raw boost::rdtsc() or boost::readTSC()?  Something 
that doesn't compile on unsupported architectures would be good.

Other code can worry about whether this is an accurate time source[1]; I 
just want a portable way to access the raw counter itself.

Thanks,
Daniel

[1] Search "rdtsc site:boost.org"