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System Performance Analysis (SPA) Software
System Performance Analysis Software
Measurement example using all three trace modes
Example
In a 32-bit microprocessor system, you want to determine how
efficiently the CPU is being utilized. Critical questions might be: are
any processes consuming excessive processing time, are any processes
getting stuck in wait loops, and is the system handling service calls and
interrupts efficiently?
You connect the HP logic analyzer to the address bus of your system. In
the Format Specification, you define a 32-bit label called ADDR and the
state clocking. In many cases, HP provides analysis probes, inverse
assemblers and standard configurations for popular microprocessors,
and you need not enter the configuration manually or worry about
probing issues.
In the State Overview mode, you select the ADDR label and start the
acquisition to monitor the entire memory space. After several
acquisitions, five areas of relatively high activity begin to build on the
histogram. Using the X and O markers to determine the address
boundaries of these five regions, you quickly recognize two programs, a
delay routine in the operating system kernel, and a keyboard interrupt
routine. The figure below shows the State Overview display.
SPA State Overview
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Troubleshooting
