diff a/src/hotspot/os/linux/os_perf_linux.cpp b/src/hotspot/os/linux/os_perf_linux.cpp
--- a/src/hotspot/os/linux/os_perf_linux.cpp
+++ b/src/hotspot/os/linux/os_perf_linux.cpp
@@ -501,16 +501,16 @@
   _counters.nProcs = os::active_processor_count();
   _counters.cpus = NULL;
 }
 
 bool CPUPerformanceInterface::CPUPerformance::initialize() {
-  size_t tick_array_size = (_counters.nProcs +1) * sizeof(os::Linux::CPUPerfTicks);
-  _counters.cpus = (os::Linux::CPUPerfTicks*)NEW_C_HEAP_ARRAY(char, tick_array_size, mtInternal);
+  size_t array_entry_count = _counters.nProcs + 1;
+  _counters.cpus = NEW_C_HEAP_ARRAY(os::Linux::CPUPerfTicks, array_entry_count, mtInternal);
   if (NULL == _counters.cpus) {
     return false;
   }
-  memset(_counters.cpus, 0, tick_array_size);
+  memset(_counters.cpus, 0, array_entry_count * sizeof(*_counters.cpus));
 
   // For the CPU load total
   os::Linux::get_tick_information(&_counters.cpus[_counters.nProcs], -1);
 
   // For each CPU