Filtering based on instruction execution characteristics for assessing program performance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11042462-B2
Application number	US-201916559999-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 4, 2019
Priority date	Sep 4, 2019
Publication date	Jun 22, 2021
Grant date	Jun 22, 2021

Abstract

Identifying computer program execution characteristics for determine relevance of pattern instruction executions to determine characteristics of a computer program. Filters are utilized to determine which subsequent occurrences of execution of at least one computer instruction are relevant to a counter based on execution characteristics of the at least one computer instruction where the counter counts the subsequent occurrences of execution of at least one computer instruction following prior executions of the same at least one computer instruction.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for determining characteristics of a computer program by identifying execution characteristics of computer instructions, comprising:
identifying a set of computer instructions;
identifying an execution of at least one computer instruction of the set of computer instructions;
determining which subsequent occurrences of execution of computer instructions in the set of computer instructions that are relevant to a counter based on execution characteristics of the computer instructions; and
counting the subsequent occurrences of execution of each of the computer instructions in the set of computer instruction that were determined to be relevant following the executions of the at least one computer instruction,
wherein determining which subsequent occurrences of execution of computer instructions in the set of computer instructions that are relevant to the counter includes filtering the subsequent occurrences of execution of the set of computer instructions based on an execution mode of the computer instructions and on a tag associated with a location in a memory that the computer instructions were fetched from, wherein the tag indicates that the location in the memory is associated with one of an operating system code and a user application code,
wherein the execution mode is one of a kernel mode and an user mode.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein a subsequent occurrence of execution of the at least one computer instruction in the set of computer instructions occurs within a threshold relative to a prior execution of the at least one computer instruction.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein the threshold comprises a threshold time period following the prior execution of the at least one computer instruction.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the execution mode of the at least one computer instruction is architecture specific.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein filtering the subsequent occurrences of execution of the set of computer instructions based on the execution mode of the computer instructions includes removing subsequent occurrences of execution of the set of computer instructions executed in the kernel mode as not being relevant.

6. A computer system for determining characteristics of a computer program by identifying execution characteristics of computer instructions, the computer system comprising a processor configured to:
identify a set of computer instructions;
identify an execution of at least one computer instruction of the set of computer instructions;
determine which subsequent occurrences of execution of computer instructions in the set of computer instructions that are relevant to a counter based on execution characteristics of the computer instructions; and
count the subsequent occurrences of execution of each of the computer instructions in the set of computer instruction that were determined to be relevant following the executions of the at least one computer instruction,
wherein determining which subsequent occurrences of execution of computer instructions in the set of computer instructions that are relevant to the counter includes filtering the subsequent occurrences of execution of the set of computer instructions based on an execution mode of the computer instructions and on a tag associated with a location in a memory that the computer instructions were fetched from, wherein the tag indicates that the location in the memory is associated with one of an operating system code and a user application code,
wherein the execution mode is one of a kernel mode and an user mode.

7. The computer system of claim 6 wherein the counter counts each subsequent occurrence of execution of at least one computer instruction occurring within a threshold relative to prior executions of the at least one computer instruction.

8. The computer system of claim 6 wherein the execution mode of the at least one computer instruction is architecture specific.

9. The computer system of claim 6 wherein filtering the subsequent occurrences of execution of the set of computer instructions based on the execution mode of the computer instructions includes removing subsequent occurrences of execution of the set of computer instructions executed in the kernel mode as not being relevant.

10. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer processor to cause the computer processor to perform a method for determining characteristics of a computer program by identifying execution characteristics of computer instructions, the method comprising:
identifying a set of computer instructions;
identifying an execution of at least one computer instruction of the set of computer instructions;
determining which subsequent occurrences of execution of computer instructions in the set of computer instructions that are relevant to a counter based on execution characteristics of the computer instructions; and
counting the subsequent occurrences of execution of each of the computer instructions in the set of computer instruction that were determined to be relevant following the executions of the at least one computer instruction,
wherein determining which subsequent occurrences of execution of computer instructions in the set of computer instructions that are relevant to the counter includes filtering the subsequent occurrences of execution of the set of computer instructions based on an execution mode of the computer instructions and on a tag associated with a location in a memory that the computer instructions were fetched from, wherein the tag indicates that the location in the memory is associated with one of an operating system code and a user application code,
wherein the execution mode is one of a kernel mode and an user mode.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the execution mode of the at least one computer instruction is architecture specific.

12. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein filtering the subsequent occurrences of execution of the set of computer instructions based on the execution mode of the computer instructions includes removing subsequent occurrences of execution of the set of computer instructions executed in the kernel mode as not being relevant.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Sofia Anthony Thomas
• Sutton Peter
• St John Robert W
• Klein Matthias

Classifications

• G06F9/545

  where tasks reside in different layers, e.g. user- and kernel-space · CPC title

• G06F9/324

  using program counter relative addressing · CPC title

• G06F9/321

  Program or instruction counter, e.g. incrementing · CPC title

• G06F11/3466 Primary

  Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring · CPC title

• G06F11/3471

  Address tracing · CPC title