Patent · US Expired

Real time software analyzing system for storing selective m-bit addresses based upon correspondingly generated n-bit tags

US4937740A · kind A · utility

66Cited by
14References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 29, 1988
Grant dateJun 26, 1990
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 29, 2008

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F11/3648
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A software analysis system for acquiring, storing, and analyzing certain predetermined characteristics of a computer program includes a method and apparatus for acquiring certain lines of high-level language instruction code without the need for statistical sampling. Each line of instruction code generates at least one address in assembly language which is encoded with a tag and stored in a first-in, first-out memory. The memory output is asynchronous with its output such that tagged addresses are stored in real time but extracted from memory at a predetermined rate. This allows the system to acquire all software event of interest. Each tagged address is also marked with a time stamp so that the time between acquisition of each of the software events of interest may be analyzed to determine, for example, the length of time spent in a particular subroutine.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.