Method and apparatus for instruction execution hot spot detection and monitoring in a data processing unit

Wen-Mei W. Hwu (Inventor), Andrew R. Trick (Inventor), Matthew C. Merten (Inventor), Christopher N. George (Inventor), John C. Gyllenhaal (Inventor)

Research output: Patent

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for detecting and monitoring program hot spots during execution that may be implemented in hardware. A hot spot detector tracks branch instructions which are retired. Frequently executed branch instruction addresses within a particular interval are designated as hot spot candidates. A hot spot detection counter is used to track non-hot spot branches and hot spot candidate branches. When hot spot candidate branches are frequently encountered compared to non-hot spot candidate branches, the hot spot detector may notify the operating system and hot spot candidate branch addresses may be supplied to a runtime optimizing compiler and a monitor table or a hot spot monitor. The hot spot monitor may disable the hot spot detector when a program is operating in known hot spots and may enable the hot spot detector if the program has strayed from known hot spots.
Original languageEnglish (US)
U.S. patent number6681387
Filing date3/8/00
StatePublished - Jan 20 2004

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