diff --git a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-bench.txt b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-bench.txt
index bad16512c48d..a0529c7fa5ef 100644
--- a/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-bench.txt
+++ b/tools/perf/Documentation/perf-bench.txt
@@ -49,6 +49,9 @@ SUBSYSTEM
 'sched'::
 	Scheduler and IPC mechanisms.
 
+'syscall'::
+	System call performance (throughput).
+
 'mem'::
 	Memory access performance.
 
@@ -137,6 +140,14 @@ Example of *pipe*
                 59004 ops/sec
 ---------------------
 
+SUITES FOR 'syscall'
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+*basic*::
+Suite for evaluating performance of core system call throughput (both usecs/op and ops/sec metrics).
+This uses a single thread simply doing getppid(2), which is a simple syscall where the result is not
+cached by glibc.
+
+
 SUITES FOR 'mem'
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 *memcpy*::
diff --git a/tools/perf/bench/Build b/tools/perf/bench/Build
index 768e408757a0..560eb9711ea2 100644
--- a/tools/perf/bench/Build
+++ b/tools/perf/bench/Build
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 perf-y += sched-messaging.o
 perf-y += sched-pipe.o
+perf-y += syscall.o
 perf-y += mem-functions.o
 perf-y += futex-hash.o
 perf-y += futex-wake.o
diff --git a/tools/perf/bench/bench.h b/tools/perf/bench/bench.h
index 61cae4966cae..49bc8ed3042a 100644
--- a/tools/perf/bench/bench.h
+++ b/tools/perf/bench/bench.h
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ extern struct timeval bench__start, bench__end, bench__runtime;
 int bench_numa(int argc, const char **argv);
 int bench_sched_messaging(int argc, const char **argv);
 int bench_sched_pipe(int argc, const char **argv);
+int bench_syscall_basic(int argc, const char **argv);
 int bench_mem_memcpy(int argc, const char **argv);
 int bench_mem_memset(int argc, const char **argv);
 int bench_futex_hash(int argc, const char **argv);
diff --git a/tools/perf/bench/syscall.c b/tools/perf/bench/syscall.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..5fe621cff8e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/perf/bench/syscall.c
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+/*
+ *
+ * syscall.c
+ *
+ * syscall: Benchmark for system call performance
+ */
+#include "../perf.h"
+#include "../util/util.h"
+#include <subcmd/parse-options.h>
+#include "../builtin.h"
+#include "bench.h"
+
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <sys/time.h>
+#include <sys/syscall.h>
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+
+#define LOOPS_DEFAULT 10000000
+static	int loops = LOOPS_DEFAULT;
+
+static const struct option options[] = {
+	OPT_INTEGER('l', "loop",	&loops,		"Specify number of loops"),
+	OPT_END()
+};
+
+static const char * const bench_syscall_usage[] = {
+	"perf bench syscall <options>",
+	NULL
+};
+
+int bench_syscall_basic(int argc, const char **argv)
+{
+	struct timeval start, stop, diff;
+	unsigned long long result_usec = 0;
+	int i;
+
+	argc = parse_options(argc, argv, options, bench_syscall_usage, 0);
+
+	gettimeofday(&start, NULL);
+
+	for (i = 0; i < loops; i++)
+		getppid();
+
+	gettimeofday(&stop, NULL);
+	timersub(&stop, &start, &diff);
+
+	switch (bench_format) {
+	case BENCH_FORMAT_DEFAULT:
+		printf("# Executed %'d getppid() calls\n", loops);
+
+		result_usec = diff.tv_sec * 1000000;
+		result_usec += diff.tv_usec;
+
+		printf(" %14s: %lu.%03lu [sec]\n\n", "Total time",
+		       diff.tv_sec,
+		       (unsigned long) (diff.tv_usec/1000));
+
+		printf(" %14lf usecs/op\n",
+		       (double)result_usec / (double)loops);
+		printf(" %'14d ops/sec\n",
+		       (int)((double)loops /
+			     ((double)result_usec / (double)1000000)));
+		break;
+
+	case BENCH_FORMAT_SIMPLE:
+		printf("%lu.%03lu\n",
+		       diff.tv_sec,
+		       (unsigned long) (diff.tv_usec / 1000));
+		break;
+
+	default:
+		/* reaching here is something disaster */
+		fprintf(stderr, "Unknown format:%d\n", bench_format);
+		exit(1);
+		break;
+	}
+
+	return 0;
+}
diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-bench.c b/tools/perf/builtin-bench.c
index cad31b1d3438..4094cbe40ba0 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-bench.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-bench.c
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
  * Available benchmark collection list:
  *
  *  sched ... scheduler and IPC performance
+ *  syscall ... System call performance
  *  mem   ... memory access performance
  *  numa  ... NUMA scheduling and MM performance
  *  futex ... Futex performance
@@ -49,6 +50,12 @@ static struct bench sched_benchmarks[] = {
 	{ NULL,		NULL,						NULL			}
 };
 
+static struct bench syscall_benchmarks[] = {
+	{ "basic",	"Benchmark for basic getppid(2) calls",		bench_syscall_basic	},
+	{ "all",	"Run all syscall benchmarks",			NULL			},
+	{ NULL,		NULL,						NULL			},
+};
+
 static struct bench mem_benchmarks[] = {
 	{ "memcpy",	"Benchmark for memcpy() functions",		bench_mem_memcpy	},
 	{ "memset",	"Benchmark for memset() functions",		bench_mem_memset	},
@@ -90,6 +97,7 @@ struct collection {
 
 static struct collection collections[] = {
 	{ "sched",	"Scheduler and IPC benchmarks",			sched_benchmarks	},
+	{ "syscall",	"System call benchmarks",			syscall_benchmarks	},
 	{ "mem",	"Memory access benchmarks",			mem_benchmarks		},
 #ifdef HAVE_LIBNUMA_SUPPORT
 	{ "numa",	"NUMA scheduling and MM benchmarks",		numa_benchmarks		},