Run-time instrumentation reporting

• US 9,280,346 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2013
• Issued: 03/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Farrell, Mark S., Gainey, Charles W. Jr., Mitran, Marcel, Shum, Chung-Lung K., Smith, Brian L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Coleman, Eric
• Application Number:
  US13/792,290
• Publication Number:
  US 20130246776A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,093 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3636 by tracing the execution of the program
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3648 using additional hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3005 to perform operations for flow control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30145 Instruction analysis, e.g. decoding, instruction word fields
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45504 Abstract machines for programme code execution, e.g. Java virtual machine [JVM], interpreters, emulators

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention relate to run-time instrumentation reporting. An instruction stream is executed by a processor. Run-time instrumentation information of the executing instruction stream is captured by the processor. Run-time instrumentation records are created based on the captured run-time instrumentation information. A run-time instrumentation sample point of the executing instruction stream on the processor is detected. A reporting group is stored in a run-time instrumentation program buffer. The storing is based on the detecting and the storing includes: determining a current address of the run-time instrumentation program buffer, the determining based on instruction accessible run-time instrumentation controls; and storing the reporting group into the run-time instrumentation program buffer based on an origin address and the current address of the run-time instrumentation program buffer, the reporting group including the created run-time instrumentation records.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for run-time instrumentation reporting, the method comprising:

executing an instruction stream of a computer program in a multithreaded processing environment, the executing by a processor;

determining, based on contents of an instrumentation control field in a program status word (PSW) dedicated to the computer program, that run-time instrumentation information of said executing instruction stream should be captured, wherein the contents of the PSW dedicated to the computer program persist during context switches by the processor;

capturing, by the processor, the run-time instrumentation information of said executing instruction stream;

based on said captured run-time instrumentation information, creating run-time instrumentation records;

detecting a run-time instrumentation sample point of the executing instruction stream on the processor; and

storing a reporting group in a run-time instrumentation program buffer, the storing based on the detecting a run-time instrumentation sample point, the storing comprising;

determining a current address of the run-time instrumentation program buffer, the determining based on instruction accessible run-time instrumentation controls; and

storing the reporting group into the run-time instrumentation program buffer based on an origin address and the current address of the run-time instrumentation program buffer, the reporting group comprising said created run-time instrumentation records.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reporting group includes a predetermined number of run-time instrumentation records specified by the run-time instrumentation controls.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing a program in a supervisor state to set any one of the origin address of the run-time instrumentation program buffer or the current address of the run-time instrumentation program buffer in the run-time instrumentation controls.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the program includes one of a load run-time instrumentation controls (LRIC) instruction and a modify run-time instrumentation controls (MRIC) instruction.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing a program in a problem state to set the origin address of the run-time instrumentation program buffer in the run-time instrumentation controls, wherein the program includes a modify run-time instrumentation controls (MRIC) instruction.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the run-time instrumentation controls specify a number of records in each reporting group in the run-time instrumentation program buffer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the run-time instrumentation program buffer is located in an address space that is accessible by an application program.