Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for processing instructions. Responsive to receiving an instruction for execution in an instruction cache in a processor in the data processing system, a determination is made as to whether an indicator is associated with the instruction and whether the instruction is of a certain type within a range of instructions. An interrupt is generated if the indicator is associated with the instruction and the instruction is of the certain type within the range of instructions.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for processing instructions. In response to receiving an instruction for execution in an instruction cache in a processor in the data processing system, a determination is made as to whether the instruction indicates enabling a mode of operation in which interrupts are to be generated. Responsive to receiving a subsequent instruction after receiving the instruction, a determination is made as to whether the instruction is of a certain type. If the mode of operation in which interrupts are to be enabled and the instruction is of the certain type, an interrupt is generated.

Abstract: A value in a counter on a processor is incremented for occurrences of a monitored event, providing a measured value for the event. The value of the counter register for a first thread is saved responsive to a switch from the first thread to a second thread. The value is saved in an accumulator in system memory. Then, responsive to a switch back to the first thread, the value for the first thread is restored from the accumulator. In this way, a counter may be read, and its value, for the first thread, for example, provides a coherent meaning relative to a previous value for the same thread, despite any intervening thread switches. Since the counter register may be read directly, in the user state, this provides a faster and more consistent means for updating performance counts.

Abstract: A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product in a data processing system are presented for using hardware assistance for gathering performance information that significantly reduces the overhead in gathering such information. Performance indicators are associated with instructions or memory locations, and processing of the performance indicators enables counting of events associated with execution of those instructions or events associated with accesses to those memory locations. The performance information that has been dynamically gathered from the assisting hardware is available to the software application during runtime in order to autonomically affect the behavior of the software application, particularly to enhance its performance. For example, the counted events may be used to autonomically control an execution-path selection within the software application.

Abstract: A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product in a data processing system are presented for using hardware assistance for gathering performance information that significantly reduces the overhead in gathering such information. Performance indicators are associated with instructions or memory locations, and processing of the performance indicators enables counting of events associated with execution of those instructions or events associated with accesses to those memory locations. The performance information that has been dynamically gathered from the assisting hardware is available to the software application during runtime in order to autonomically affect the behavior of the software application, particularly to enhance its performance. For example, the counted events may be used to autonomically improve the performance of the execution of an application by relocating code segments and data areas.

Abstract: A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product in a data processing system are presented for using hardware assistance for gathering performance information that significantly reduces the overhead in gathering such information. Performance indicators are associated with instructions or memory locations, and processing of the performance indicators enables counting of events associated with execution of those instructions or events associated with accesses to those memory locations. The performance information that has been dynamically gathered from the assisting hardware is available to the software application during runtime in order to autonomically affect the behavior of the software application, particularly to enhance its performance. For example, the counted events may be used to autonomically collecting statistical information about the ability of a software application to successfully acquire a semaphore.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer instructions in a data processing system for monitoring the execution of instructions. A routine is of interest is identified during the execution of a program. Instructions in the routine of interest are associated with a set of indicators to form a modified routine, and an instruction is executed in the modified routine during continued execution of the program, incrementing a counter.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions in a data processing system for processing instructions and monitoring accesses to memory location ranges. An instruction for execution is identified. A determination is made as to whether the instruction is within a contiguous range of instructions. Execution information relating to the instruction is identified if the instruction is within the contiguous range of instructions. With memory location accesses, an access to a memory location is identified. A determination of whether the memory location is within a contiguous range of memory locations is made. Access information is identified if the memory location is within the contiguous range of memory locations.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions in a data processing system for processing instructions. An instruction is received at a processor in the data processing system. If an indicator is associated with the instruction in which the indicator identifies a threshold value, execution of the instruction is counted if a time for executing the instruction exceeds the threshold value. Responsive to a request to access data, a determination is made as to whether the indicator is associated with the data. The indicator identifies a threshold value. Access to the data is counted if the indicator is associated with the data and if a time needed to access the data exceeds the threshold value.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions in a data processing system for processing instructions. Instructions are received at a processor in the data processing system. If an indicator is associated with the instruction, the execution of the instruction and all subsequent instructions are counted until another indicator is received. The indicator also is used with data locations to count accesses to data in the data locations. If the indicator is associated with a data location, all subsequent data location accesses are counted until another indicator is received.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions in a data processing system for processing instructions. Instructions are received at a processor in the data processing system. If a selected indicator is associated with the instruction, counting of each event associated with the execution of the instruction is enabled.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions in a data processing system for monitoring the execution of instructions and accesses to memory locations. If an instruction is associated with a indicator, a counter associated with the instruction is incremented in response to detecting execution of the instruction. The indicator may be associated with a memory location with a counter associated with the memory location being incremented in response to an access of the memory location.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions in a data processing system for monitoring processing of instructions and memory locations. An instruction is received in the data processing system for execution. If an enabled state is present, a determination is made whether the instruction is associated with an indicator in a shadow memory. A selected action is performed in response to the indicator being associated with the instruction. Responsive to being in an enabled state when a data access to a memory location occurs, a determination is made as to whether the memory location is associated with an indicator in a shadow memory. A selected action is performed in response to the indicator being associated with the memory location.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions in a data processing system for monitoring the execution of a program. Instructions for calls and returns in the program are associated with a set of indicators. The program is executed using a processor. The set of indicators associated with the instructions causes the processor executing the instructions to generate data on calls and returns in the program.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions in a data processing system for processing instructions. An instruction is identified for execution within a processor in the data processing system. If an indicator is associated with the instruction then an interrupt is forced. With data accesses, a determination is made as to whether the indicator is associated with the data in response to an access of data. An interrupt is generated if the data is associated with the indicator.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for profiling an application in data processing system. The execution of an instruction associated with an indicator is detected. The instruction is located in a routine. A determination is made as to whether the instruction has been executed more than a threshold value. If the instruction has been executed more than the threshold value, an interrupt is generated to pass control to a monitoring program in which the monitoring program identifies information regarding a caller of a routine.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions in a data processing system for monitoring the execution of a compiled program having a set of groupings such as pages, modules, or subroutines. A grouping from the set of groupings for the compiled program is selected to form a selected grouping. A set of indicators is associated with instructions in the selected grouping within the set of groupings. The set of indicators provide data on the execution of the instructions by a processor. The compiled program is executed. The data is generated upon encountering an indicator in the set of indicators, and the data is collected.