clflush to invalidate cache line via C function
You have multiple errors in the code that may lead the nonsensical measurements that you're seeing. I've fixed the errors and you can find the explanation in the comments below.
/* compile with gcc at optimization level -O3 */
/* set the minimum and maximum CPU frequency for all cores using cpupower to get meaningful results */
/* run using "sudo nice -n -20 ./a.out" to minimize possible context switches, or at least use "taskset -c 0 ./a.out" */
/* you can optionally use a p-state scaling driver other than intel_pstate to get more reproducable results */
/* This code still needs improvement to obtain more accurate measurements,
and a lot of effort is required to do that—argh! */
/* Specifically, there is no single constant latency for the L1 because of
the way it's designed, and more so for main memory. */
/* Things such as virtual addresses, physical addresses, TLB contents,
code addresses, and interrupts may have an impact that needs to be
investigated */
/* The instructions that GCC puts unnecessarily in the timed section are annoying AF */
/* This code is written to run on Intel processors! */
#include <stdint.h>
#include <x86intrin.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int array[ 100 ];
/* this is optional */
/* will bring array in the cache */
for ( int i = 0; i < 100; i++ )
array[ i ] = i;
printf( "address = %p \n", &array[ 0 ] ); /* guaranteed to be aligned within a single cache line */
_mm_mfence(); /* prevent clflush from being reordered by the CPU or the compiler in this direction */
/* flush the line containing the element */
_mm_clflush( &array[ 0 ] );
//unsigned int aux;
uint64_t time1, time2, msl, hsl, osl; /* initial values don't matter */
/* You can generally use rdtsc or rdtscp.
See: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59759596/is-there-any-difference-in-between-rdtsc-lfence-rdtsc-and-rdtsc-rdtscp
I AM NOT SURE THOUGH THAT THE SERIALIZATION PROERTIES OF
RDTSCP ARE APPLICABLE AT THE COMPILER LEVEL WHEN USING THE
__RDTSCP INTRINSIC. THIS IS TRUE FOR PURE FENCES SUCH AS LFENCE. */
_mm_mfence(); /* this properly orders both clflush and rdtsc*/
_mm_lfence(); /* mfence and lfence must be in this order + compiler barrier for rdtsc */
time1 = __rdtsc(); /* set timer */
_mm_lfence(); /* serialize __rdtsc with respect to trailing instructions + compiler barrier for rdtsc and the load */
int temp = array[ 0 ]; /* array[0] is a cache miss */
/* measring the write miss latency to array is not meaningful because it's an implementation detail and the next write may also miss */
/* no need for mfence because there are no stores in between */
_mm_lfence(); /* mfence and lfence must be in this order + compiler barrier for rdtsc and the load*/
time2 = __rdtsc();
_mm_lfence(); /* serialize __rdtsc with respect to trailing instructions */
msl = time2 - time1;
printf( "array[ 0 ] = %i \n", temp ); /* prevent the compiler from optimizing the load */
printf( "miss section latency = %lu \n", msl ); /* the latency of everything in between the two rdtsc */
_mm_mfence(); /* this properly orders both clflush and rdtsc*/
_mm_lfence(); /* mfence and lfence must be in this order + compiler barrier for rdtsc */
time1 = __rdtsc(); /* set timer */
_mm_lfence(); /* serialize __rdtsc with respect to trailing instructions + compiler barrier for rdtsc and the load */
temp = array[ 0 ]; /* array[0] is a cache hit as long as the OS, a hardware prefetcher, or a speculative accesses to the L1D or lower level inclusive caches don't evict it */
/* measring the write miss latency to array is not meaningful because it's an implementation detail and the next write may also miss */
/* no need for mfence because there are no stores in between */
_mm_lfence(); /* mfence and lfence must be in this order + compiler barrier for rdtsc and the load */
time2 = __rdtsc();
_mm_lfence(); /* serialize __rdtsc with respect to trailing instructions */
hsl = time2 - time1;
printf( "array[ 0 ] = %i \n", temp ); /* prevent the compiler from optimizing the load */
printf( "hit section latency = %lu \n", hsl ); /* the latency of everything in between the two rdtsc */
_mm_mfence(); /* this properly orders both clflush and rdtsc */
_mm_lfence(); /* mfence and lfence must be in this order + compiler barrier for rdtsc */
time1 = __rdtsc(); /* set timer */
_mm_lfence(); /* serialize __rdtsc with respect to trailing instructions + compiler barrier for rdtsc */
/* no need for mfence because there are no stores in between */
_mm_lfence(); /* mfence and lfence must be in this order + compiler barrier for rdtsc */
time2 = __rdtsc();
_mm_lfence(); /* serialize __rdtsc with respect to trailing instructions */
osl = time2 - time1;
printf( "overhead latency = %lu \n", osl ); /* the latency of everything in between the two rdtsc */
printf( "Measured L1 hit latency = %lu TSC cycles\n", hsl - osl ); /* hsl is always larger than osl */
printf( "Measured main memory latency = %lu TSC cycles\n", msl - osl ); /* msl is always larger than osl and hsl */
return 0;
}
Highly recommended: Memory latency measurement with time stamp counter.
Related: How can I create a spectre gadget in practice?.
You know you can query the line size with cpuid, right? Do that if you actually want to find it programmatically. (Otherwise, assume it's 64 bytes, because it is on everything after PIII.)
But sure if want to use clflush or clflushopt from C for whatever reason, use void _mm_clflush(void const *p) or void _mm_clflushopt(void const *p), from #include <immintrin.h>. (See Intel's insn set ref manual entry for clflush or clflushopt).
GCC, clang, ICC, and MSVC all support Intel's <immintrin.h> intrinsics.
You could also have found this by searching Intel's intrinsics guide for clflush to find definitions for the intrinsics for that instruction.
see also https://stackoverflow.com/tags/x86/info for more links to guides, docs, and reference manuals.
More than that, how can I be sure that the line is evicted in order to verify the correctness of my code?
Look at the compiler's asm output, or single-step it in a debugger. If/when clflush executes, that cache line is evicted at that point in your program.