METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DIAGNOSTIC RECORDING USING TRANSACTIONAL MEMORY

• US 20090217104A1
• Filed: 02/26/2008
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Wilding, Mark Francis, Heller, Thomas J. JR., Abrashkevich, Alexander, Blainey, Robert James
• Granted Patent: US 8,972,794 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/366 using diagnostics G06F11/0703 takes precedence

Abstract

A method (500) or a diagnostic recording device (400) having transactional memory and a processor coupled to the transactional memory can store (502) contents of a transaction log (40) of the transactional memory, detect (504) an exception event, and replay (506) last instructions that led up to the exception event using a debugger tool (80). The transactional memory can be hardware or software based transactional memory. The processor can also store the transaction log by storing the contents of the transaction log in a core file (302) which can include a stack (60), a register dump (70), a memory dump (75), and the transactional log. The debugger tool can be used to load up the core file, an executable file (95), and a library (90) to enable the diagnostic recording device to retrace transactions occurring at the diagnostic recording device up to the exception event.

Claims

1. A diagnostic recording method, comprising the steps of:

storing contents of a transaction log of a transactional memory;

detecting an exception event; and

replaying last instructions that led up to the exception event using a debugger tool.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of storing the contents of the transaction log comprises storing the contents of the transaction log of most recent memory accesses.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transactional memory is a hardware-based transactional memory.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the transactional memory is a software-based transactional memory.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of storing the contents of the transaction log comprises storing contents of the transaction log in a core file.

6. The method claim 1, wherein the transaction memory is used as a flight recorder.

7. A computer program embodied in a computer storage medium and operable in a data processing machine for diagnostic recording using transactional memory, comprising instructions executable by the data processing machine that cause the data processing machine to:

store contents of a transaction log of the transactional memory;

detect an exception event; and

replay last instructions that led up to the exception event using a debugger tool.

8. The computer program of claim 7, wherein the computer program further include instructions to cause the data machine to store the contents of the transaction log of most recent memory accesses.

9. The computer program of claim 8, wherein the computer program includes instructions to cause the data machine to store the most recent memory accesses in a hardware-based transactional memory.

10. The computer program of claim 8, wherein the computer program includes instructions to cause the data machine to store the most recent memory accesses in a software-based transactional memory.

11. The computer program of claim 7, wherein the computer program includes instructions to cause the data machine to store the contents of the transaction log in a core file.

12. A diagnostic recording device, comprising:

transactional memory;

a processor coupled to the transactional memory, wherein the processor is operable to;

store contents of a transaction log of the transactional memory;

detect an exception event; and

replay last instructions that led up to the exception event using a debugger tool.

13. The diagnostic recording device of claim 12, wherein the processor is operable to store the contents of the transaction log by storing the contents of the transaction log of most recent memory accesses.

14. The diagnostic recording device of claim 12, wherein the transactional memory is a hardware-based transactional memory or software-based transactional memory.

15. The diagnostic recording device of claim 12, wherein the processor is operable to store the contents of the transaction log by storing the contents of the transaction log in a core file.

16. The diagnostic recording device of claim 12, wherein the diagnostic recording device is a diagnostic flight recorder.

17. The diagnostic recording device of claim 12, wherein the processor is further operable to make a special system call into an operating system to provide call thread access to its own transaction log.

18. The diagnostic recording device of claim 12, wherein the processor is operable to dump information from a core file comprising a stack, a register dump, a memory dump, and the transactional log.

19. The diagnostic recording device of claim 18, wherein the processor is further operable to cause the debugger tool to load up the core file, an executable file, and a library to enable the diagnostic recording device to retrace transactions occurring at the diagnostic recording device up to the exception event.