kstream - STREAM benchmark inside a Linux kernel module

kstream allocates individual 4 MiB chunks of memory (maximum granularity of the buddy page allocator) in increasing address order and run a modified STREAM benchmark on each individual chunk; it measure the memory bandwidth a) without flushing caches b) flushing caches before every memory access.

Results for each memory chunk will currently be printed using printk(), flooding the system log.

Note: x86 only and pretty much untested. The results might be quite unreliable. Useful for identifying problematic physical memory ranges.

Your kernel has to be compiled without enforced module signatures (CONFIG_MODULE_SIG_FORCE) and secureboot might have to be disabled.

When compiling for a distribution kernel, you'll have to install kernel-devel packages.

1. Compile the module

$ make

2. Load the module to start the benchmark

$ insmod kstream.ko

3. Wait until the benchmark finished, or stop the benchmark any time

$ rmmod kstream