Scalable and improved profiling of software programs
US7380241B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 7, 2004 |
| Grant date | May 27, 2008 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 6, 2027 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2201/88
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method for profiling software programs uses a small pinned buffer and a large unpinned histogram buffer. When a process that is being profiled receives a time slice, the process' program counter is written to the small pinned buffer by a kernel routine. The small pinned buffer is configured to be large enough to store several program counters. When the small pinned buffer is full, or almost full, an internal profiling signal is sent by the kernel routine. When the process is resumed, any outstanding signals (including the profiling signal) are processed before resuming the process. The profiling signal is handled by reading the program counters from the small pinned buffer, calculating a slot in the histogram buffer that corresponds to each of the program counters, incrementing the value in the corresponding histogram slots, and clearing the small pinned buffer so that it can be reused.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.