Related Topics:
Related Topics:| Clock-Based Profiling Data | Callers-Callees Function Metrics |
| Synchronization Wait Tracing Data | Annotated Source and Disassembly Code |
Hardware counter overflow profiling records the call stack of each LWP at the time the hardware counter of the CPU on which the LWP is running overflows. The data recorded includes the count, a timestamp and the IDs of the CPU, the thread, and the LWP. Hardware counters keep track of such things as instruction-cache misses, data-cache misses, cycles, floating-point operations, or instructions issued or executed.
Hardware counter overflow profiling can be done only on UltraSPARCTM III systems running the SolarisTM 8 Operating Environment (SPARCTM Platform Edition) and on Intel systems (Pentium II or III) running the Solaris 8 Operating Environment (Intel Platform Edition).
The counters available depend on the specific CPU microprocessor and operating environment. You can display the list of available counters by clicking Show in the Sampling Collector Window or by typing the collect command with no arguments. The counter type and overflow value can be set when the data is collected by The Sampling Collector.
By default, the Function List display shows the exclusive and inclusive hardware-counter overflow profiling count. The defaults can be changed using a defaults file. See the er_print(1) man page for details.
You can choose to display metrics as a percentage of total program metric, select other metrics to display and specify a different sort order in the Function List Metrics Dialog Box. See Choosing the Metrics Displayed and the Sort Order for more information.
You can also select a subset of experiments, samples, threads and LWPs for which to examine metrics. See Selecting Experiments, Samples, Threads, and LWPs for Analysis.
Note - Hardware counter overflow profiling and clock-based profiling are mutually exclusive. To see both for a program, you must collect the two types of data in separate experiments.