SOFTWARE CODE PROFILING

摘要

An on-chip function call aware software code profiling counter system and method is disclosed. When building software code a compiler/tool-chain can modify prologues and epilogues of functions to add instrumentation code which uniquely identifies the function. Each function included in the instrumented source code tree is assigned a unique identifier (ID) by the compiler/tool-chain. Writing a unique ID for a function to a register starts profiling for the function. The profiling is performed by a counter that counts the number of instruction cycles since the last unique ID was written to the register. When a unique ID for a next function to be profiled is written to the register, the old register value and the counter value are latched to one or more buffers and the counter is cleared to start the next count sequence for the next function to be profiled.

主权项

1. An integrated circuit (IC) device including a system for software code profiling, the system comprising:
a profiling register configured for storing a software function identifier; a time measurement circuit configured for starting and stopping a counter based on signals indicative of a start point and a stop point of the function in source code, where the signals are generated while compiled source code of the function is executing on the IC device; a counter array configured for storing a counter value indicative of a total execution time for the function; and a data structure configured for storing software function identifiers according to an order of execution of the corresponding functions.