What Is System Performance Analysis - HP 1660CP Series User Manual

System Performance Analysis (SPA) Software

What is System Performance Analysis?

What is System Performance Analysis?
The logic analyzer's state or timing analyzer is used to make quantitative
measurements on specific events in the target system. For example, they can
measure a specific time interval on a microprocessor's control lines or can
find out how a particular subroutine was called.
System Performance Analysis, on the other hand, is used for qualitative
measurements on the target system. SPA provides statistical analysis
functions so you can determine how efficiently your target system is
operating.
SPA repeatedly samples signals of interest, such as an address bus or the
output of a counter. The multiple data sets from the repeated sampling are
then used to build histograms and compile statistics that describe your target
system's performance over time.
Some typical examples of SPA applications include:
•
Obtain an overview of system activity.
•
Identify software problems that lock up the microprocessor.
•
Determine the best-case and worst-case execution times for a software
module or a state machine.
•
Establish standards for software modules or state machines.
•
Identify inefficient use of mass storage and other peripherals.
•
Evaluate memory utilization, such as illegal access in protected portions of
memory, and locality of execution.
Operating characteristics
The following describes the operating characteristics of the System
Performance Analysis software for the three SPA measurement modes.
State Overview The State Overview mode displays a bar chart of a
label's state value versus the relative number of occurrences of each
value in the defined range of the label. State Overview is available on any
label defined in the Format Specification.
•
The X axis is the defined range for the specified label which is divided into
256 buckets.
•
The range of the specified label is user-definable.
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