For this Learning Path, you will need:
A Windows on Arm (AArch64) native machine with pre-installed WindowsPerf; both the driver and wperf CLI tool. See the
WindowsPerf Install Guide
for more details.
The
WindowsPerf release 3.8.0
includes a separate build with support for Arm SPE enabled. To install this version, download the release asset, and you will find WindowsPerf SPE build in the SPE/ subdirectory.
Visual Studio installed.
Git installed.
A CPU that supports the Arm SPE extension.
You can check your CPU compatibility using the WindowsPerf command-line tool.
You can check if WindowsPerf detects SPE support with the wperf test command.
Run the command below and if the spe_device.version_name property shows FEAT_SPE, it means that WindowsPerf can use the SPE features.
wperf test
Here an example output for a system with SPE support:
Test Name Result
========= ======
...
spe_device.version_name FEAT_SPE
Currently, the WindowsPerf support of SPE is in development, and not all versions of WindowsPerf enable SPE support. Some WindowsPerf releases might contain separate binaries with SPE support enabled.
You can check the feature string FeatureString of both wperf and wperf-driver with wperf --version command:
wperf --version
The output should be similar to:
Component Version GitVer FeatureString
========= ======= ====== =============
wperf 3.8.0 6d15ddfc +etw-app+spe
wperf-driver 3.8.0 6d15ddfc +trace+spe
If the FeatureString for both wperf and wperf-driver contains +spe, the SPE features of WindowsPerf are available for you to use.
Perform the build steps below on your Windows on Arm system.
CPython is an open-source project, which includes native support for Windows on Arm starting with version 3.11.
The SPE features demonstrated here use a debug build of CPython. You can build CPython locally from sources in debug mode.
Open a Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022 command prompt. You can find this from Windows Start by searching for Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022.
When you open the command prompt, you will see output similar to:
**********************************************************************
** Visual Studio 2022 Developer Command Prompt v17.7.6
** Copyright (c) 2022 Microsoft Corporation
**********************************************************************
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community>
For the remaining steps, use Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022.
You can build CPython locally in debug mode using the build.bat script.
Obtain the CPython source code from GitHub:
git clone https://github.com/python/cpython.git
The output from this command is similar to:
Cloning into 'cpython'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 990145, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (43119/43119), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (896/896), done.
remote: Total 990145 (delta 42673), reused 42290 (delta 42223), pack-reused 947026
Receiving objects: 100% (990145/990145), 527.93 MiB | 14.28 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (792463/792463), done.
Updating files: 100% (4647/4647), done.
This step is optional, but you might encounter build issues unrelated to this example if the CPython mainline source code is not stable. It is best to checkout a specific SHA to avoid any unexpected issues and to ensure you are working off the same code base.
Use a specific CPython commit to match the output for this example:
cd cpython
git checkout 1ff81c0cb67215694f084e51c4d35ae53b9f5cf9
The output is similar to:
Updating files: 100% (2774/2774), done.
Note: switching to '1ff81c0cb67215694f084e51c4d35ae53b9f5cf9'.
...
The build.bat script builds CPython from sources. Build CPython with debug symbols by invoking the -d command line option, and selecting the ARM64 target with -p ARM64.
Make sure you are using Developer Command Prompt for VS 2022.
Change to the PCbuild directory, and run the build command:
cd PCbuild
build.bat -d -p ARM64
The output is similar to:
Downloading nuget...
Installing Python via nuget...
...
python.c
python.vcxproj -> C:\\path\to\cpython\PCbuild\arm64\python_d.exe
Wrote C:\path\to\cpython\PCbuild\arm64\LICENSE.txt
WinMain.c
pythonw.vcxproj -> C:\path\to\cpython\PCbuild\arm64\pythonw_d.exe
Build succeeded.
0 Warning(s)
0 Error(s)
Time Elapsed 00:00:59.50
The folder cpython\PCbuild\arm64 contains the executables built in this process.
You will use python_d.exe to run Python.
Continue at the same command prompt, and test that Python runs correctly:
cd arm64
python_d.exe
You can see CPython being invoked in interactive mode:
Python 3.12.0a6+ (heads/main:1ff81c0cb6, Mar 14 2023, 16:26:50) [MSC v.1935 64 bit (ARM64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
Type quit() to exit CPython.
Your environment is now ready to use WindowsPerf with SPE on CPython.