RUN-TIME INSTRUMENTATION MONITORING OF PROCESSOR CHARACTERISTICS

• US 20130246771A1
• Filed: 03/05/2013
• Published: 09/19/2013
• 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, Osisek, Damian L., Shum, Chung-Lung K., Slegel, Timothy J., Smith, Brian L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,459,873 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 712/227
• 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 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• 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 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention relate to monitoring processor characteristic information of a processor using run-time-instrumentation. An aspect of the invention includes executing an instruction stream on the processor and detecting a run-time instrumentation sample point of the executing instruction stream on the processor. A reporting group is stored in a run-time instrumentation program buffer based on the run-time instrumentation sample point. The reporting group includes processor characteristic information associated with the processor.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for monitoring processor characteristic information of a processor using run-time-instrumentation, the method comprising:

executing an instruction stream on a processor;

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 based on the run-time instrumentation sample point, the reporting group including processor characteristic information associated with the processor.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

checking current processor characteristic information prior to storing a subsequent reporting group in the run-time instrumentation program buffer based on the subsequent run-time instrumentation sample point; and

based on the current processor characteristic information, determining whether to perform one of;

storing the subsequent reporting group in the run-time instrumentation program buffer;

suppressing storage of the subsequent reporting group in the run-time instrumentation program buffer; and

halting run-time instrumentation.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining whether processors in a current configuration are configured to operate with a common CPU capability; and

based on determining that a difference exists in CPU capability between the processors in the current configuration;

reading a suppression control of a run-time instrumentation control; and

suppressing storage of the subsequent reporting group in the run-time instrumentation program buffer based on the suppression control indicating that reporting group storage for a processor having a corresponding CPU capability is to be suppressed.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining a current processor version;

comparing the current processor version to a previously recorded processor version in the processor characteristic information recorded in the reporting group; and

halting run-time instrumentation based on detecting a change in value between the previously recorded processor version and the current processor version.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the instruction stream has migrated to a second processor;

reading a reporting group size from the processor characteristic information of the reporting group;

comparing the reporting group size to an upper limit of the second processor; and

halting run-time instrumentation based on determining that the reporting group size exceeds the upper limit of the second processor.