KeQueryInterruptTime function (wdm.h)

The KeQueryInterruptTime routine returns the current value of the system interrupt time count, with accuracy to within system clock tick.

Syntax

ULONGLONG KeQueryInterruptTime();

Return value

KeQueryInterruptTime returns the current interrupt-time count in 100-nanosecond units. The update to this return value generally occurs at least once per system clock tick.

Remarks

This routine returns the system interrupt time, which is the amount of time since the operating system was last started. The interrupt-time count begins at zero when the operating system starts and is incremented at each clock interrupt by the length of a clock tick. For various reasons, such as hardware differences, the length of a system clock tick can vary between computers. Call the KeQueryTimeIncrement routine to determine the size of a system clock tick.

KeQueryInterruptTime can be used for performance tuning. This routine returns a finer grained measurement than the KeQueryTickCount routine. A call to KeQueryInterruptTime has considerably less overhead than a call to the KeQueryPerformanceCounter routine, as well.

Consequently, interrupt time can be used to measure very fine-grained durations while the system is running because operations that set or reset the system time have no effect on the system interrupt time count.

However, power-management state changes do affect the system interrupt time count. Maintenance of the interrupt time count is suspended during system sleep states. When a subsequent wake state transition occurs, the system adds a "bias" value to the interrupt time count to compensate for the estimated duration of such a sleep state. The interrupt time count that is returned by KeQueryInterruptTime includes this bias value. To obtain an unbiased interrupt time count, use the KeQueryUnbiasedInterruptTime routine instead of KeQueryInterruptTime.

Requirements

Requirement Value
Minimum supported client Available starting with Windows 2000.
Target Platform Universal
Header wdm.h (include Wdm.h, Ntddk.h, Ntifs.h)
Library NtosKrnl.lib
DLL NtosKrnl.exe
IRQL Any level

See also

Acquiring high-resolution time stamps

KeQueryInterruptTimePrecise

KeQueryPerformanceCounter

KeQueryTickCount

KeQueryTimeIncrement

KeQueryUnbiasedInterruptTime