I came across this code and need to understand what it is doing. It just seems to be declaring two bytes and then doing nothing...
uint64_t x;
__asm__ __volatile__ (".byte 0x0f, 0x31" : "=A" (x));
Thanks!
I came across this code and need to understand what it is doing. It just seems to be declaring two bytes and then doing nothing...
uint64_t x;
__asm__ __volatile__ (".byte 0x0f, 0x31" : "=A" (x));
Thanks!
This is generating two bytes (0F 31) directly into the code stream. This is an RDTSC instruction, which reads the time-stamp counter into EDX:EAX, which will then be copied to the variable 'x' by the output constraint "=A"(x)
0F 31 is the x86 opcode for the RDTSC (read time stamp counter) instruction; it places the value read into the EDX and EAX registers.
The _ _ asm__ directive isn't just declaring two bytes, it's placing inline assembly into the C code. Presumably, the program has a way of using the value in those registers immediately afterwards.