The 2.6.31 Linux kernel will add a new performance counter subsystem called Performance Counters for Linux (or perfcounters for short). To use perfcounters, build a kernel with: CONFIG_PERF_COUNTERS=y You will need elfutils and optionally binutils (for c++ function unmangling). On debian or ubuntu: apt-get install libelf-dev binutils-dev The tools must be built 64bit on a 64bit kernel. If you have