Patent · US Expired

Computer method and apparatus for analyzing program instructions executing in a computer system

US6009514A · kind A · utility

61Cited by
5References
5Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 30, 1998
Grant dateDec 28, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 30, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2201/885
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In a computerized method, performance data collected while a computer system executed instructions of a program are analyzed. The method collects performance data while executing the program. The performance data includes sample counts of instructions executed. The program is analyzed to determine classes of instructions. Instructions of the same equivalence class all execute the identical number of times. The execution frequencies for each instructions of each equivalence class is estimated. The estimated execution frequencies can then be used to determine the average number of cycles required to issue each instruction of each equivalence class. The average number of cycles can be compared with the minimum number of cycles to determine the number of dynamic stall cycles incurred by the instructions. Furthermore, reasons for the dynamic stall cycles can be inferred.

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