Run-time-instrumentation controls emit instruction

• US 9,395,989 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2013
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Gainey, Charles W. Jr., Mitran, Marcel, Shum, Chung-Lung K., Stoodley, Kevin A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Coleman, Eric
• Application Number:
  US13/790,157
• Publication Number:
  US 20130246747A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,229 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/348 Circuit details, i.e. tracer hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3644 by instrumenting at runtime
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3005 to perform operations for flow control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30076 to perform miscellaneous control operations, e.g. NOP
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30101 Special purpose registers
• 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

Aspects relate to executing a run-time-instrumentation EMIT (RIEMIT) instruction. A processor is configured to capture the run-time-instrumentation information of a stream of instructions. The RIEMIT instruction is fetched and executed. It is determined if the current run-time-instrumentation controls are configured to permit capturing and storing of run-time-instrumentation information in a run-time-instrumentation program buffer. If the controls are configured to store run-time-instrumentation instructions, then a RIEMIT instruction specified value is stored as an emit record of a reporting group in the run-time-instrumentation program buffer.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for executing a run-time-instrumentation controls emit (RIEMIT) instruction, the RIEMIT instruction executable in either a supervisor state or a lesser-privileged state, the method comprising:

configuring a processor to capture run-time-instrumentation information of a stream of instructions in a computer program, the configuring including accessing a program status word (PSW) associated with the computer program to update a bit in the PSW to indicate that run-time instrumentation data should be captured by the processor, the stream of instructions comprising the RIEMIT instruction, and the computer program is one of a plurality of computer programs for execution by the processor each having an associated PSW;

fetching the RIEMIT instruction;

executing, by the processor, the RIEMIT instruction, the executing comprising;

determining that current run-time-instrumentation controls are configured to permit capturing of run-time-instrumentation information for storing run-time-instrumentation records in a run-time-instrumentation program buffer; and

storing an RIEMIT instruction specified value as an emit record of a reporting group in the run-time-instrumentation program buffer.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reporting group consists of run-time-instrumentation records, the run-time-instrumentation records comprising address reporting (AR) records, each AR record having an instruction address field and an event field, the instruction address field having an instruction address of an instruction associated with a run-time-instrumentation event, the event field having a type value indicating a type of AR record, wherein the emit record is an AR record, wherein, within the reporting group, AR records are arranged, in the reporting group, according to program order of run-time-instrumentation event occurrence associated with an AR record of the reporting group.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining is based on:

an indicator that run-time-instrumentation is enabled;

an indicator that the current run-time-instrumentation controls are valid; and

an indicator that the RIEMIT instruction is enabled.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining includes any one of:

determining that the RIEMIT instruction is being executed from the lesser-privileged state and that the current run-time-instrumentation controls are configured to allow the execution of the RIEMIT instruction from the lesser-privileged state; and

determining that the RIEMIT instruction is being executed from the supervisor state and that the current run-time-instrumentation controls are configured to allow the execution of the RIEMIT instruction from the supervisor state.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining that the run-time-instrumentation program buffer will accommodate additional data.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the RIEMIT instruction comprises a register field for specifying a register location, wherein the RIEMIT instruction specified value is obtained from the register location.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

capturing run-time-instrumentation information of run-time-instrumentation events in a collection buffer in program order of occurrence of run-time-instrumentation events;

based on the determining, capturing the RIEMIT instruction specified value in the collection buffer in program order; and

storing in the run-time-instrumentation program buffer, information from the collection buffer as records of the reporting group in the run-time-instrumentation program buffer, wherein the reporting group consists of run-time-instrumentation records, the run-time-instrumentation records comprising address reporting (AR) records, each AR record having an instruction address field and an event field, the instruction address field having an instruction address of an instruction associated with a run-time-instrumentation event, the event field having a type field indicating a type of AR record, wherein the emit record is an AR record, wherein, within a reporting group, AR records are arranged, in the reporting group, according to program order of run-time-instrumentation event occurrence associated with an AR record of the reporting group.