The CPU timestamp counter is a high-resolution clock source useful for profiling code or controlling tight timing loops. AMD/Intel CPUs support this via the RDTSC opcode, and other CPUs often provide similar functionality. Apparently MS compilers support an __rdtsc() intrinsic, but I couldn't find one for gcc. The code at http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/~kazutomo/rdtsc.html seems to do a good job for gcc; it avoids a couple bugs in code found at other sites. Any possibility of a raw boost::rdtsc() or boost::readTSC()? Something that doesn't compile on unsupported architectures would be good. Other code can worry about whether this is an accurate time source[1]; I just want a portable way to access the raw counter itself. Thanks, Daniel [1] Search "rdtsc site:boost.org"