Apparatus and method for decoupling event monitoring from processor data sources

A method, comprising:

• monitoring, by performance monitoring circuitry integral to a core of a plurality of cores of a processor, on-core events occurring within the core;
• monitoring, by off-module logic of the performance monitoring circuitry, events associated with, at least in part, circuit blocks external to the core, wherein monitoring comprises:
• monitoring events associated with off-module transactions that at least in part, occur in one or more circuit blocks external to the core which annotate or append event-related metadata to one or more of the off-module transactions, the event-related metadata encoded to indicate an event in accordance with a pre-defined performance monitoring data encoding, the off-module logic to extract the event-related metadata from the off-module transactions returning to the core from a corresponding circuit block, the defined performance monitoring data encoding including a first set of one or more bits to identify a resource associated with the event, and a second set of one or more bits to indicate a relevant detail associated with the event;
• decoding, by the off-module logic, the performance monitoring data encoding and responsively performing one or both of:
• causing a corresponding performance monitoring counter to be incremented if the performance monitoring circuitry is configured to count the event indicated by the performance monitoring data encoding;
• and
• tagging a temporary structure internal to the core representing the off-module transaction or generating a corresponding signal to logic integral to the core to increment the corresponding performance monitoring counter when a corresponding instruction retires.

A machine-readable medium having program code stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, is to cause the processor to perform operations, comprising:

• monitoring, by performance monitoring circuitry integral to a core of a plurality of cores of a processor, on-core events occurring within the core;
• monitoring, by off-module logic of the performance monitoring circuitry, events associated with, at least in part, circuit blocks external to the core, wherein monitoring comprises:
• monitoring events associated with off-module transactions that at least in part, occur in one or more circuit blocks external to the core which annotate or append event-related metadata to one or more of the off-module transactions, the event-related metadata encoded to indicate an event in accordance with a pre-defined performance monitoring data encoding, the off-module logic to extract the event-related metadata from the off-module transactions returning to the core from a corresponding circuit block, the defined performance monitoring data encoding including a first set of one or more bits to identify a resource associated with the event, and a second set of one or more bits to indicate a relevant detail associated with the event;
• decoding, by the off-module logic, the performance monitoring data encoding and responsively performing one or both of:
• causing a corresponding performance monitoring counter to be incremented if the performance monitoring circuitry is configured to count the event indicated by the performance monitoring data encoding;
• and
• tagging a temporary structure internal to the core representing the off-module transaction or generating a corresponding signal to logic integral to the core to increment the corresponding performance monitoring counter when a corresponding instruction retires.