Abstract: Hardware assist to autonomically patch code. The present invention provides hardware microcode to a new type of metadata to selectively identify instructions to be patched for specific performance optimization functions. The present invention also provides a new flag in the machine status register (MSR) to enable or disable a performance monitoring application or process to perform code-patching functions. If the code patching function is enabled, the application or process may patch code at run time by associating the metadata with the selected instructions. The metadata includes pointers pointing to the patch code block code. The program code may be patched autonomically without modifying original code.

Abstract: A method of operating a virtual machine includes determining a virtual machine signature, receiving an execution request from an application, and determining an application signature based on the request. The method further includes validating the application signature to the virtual machine signature and executing the application based on the validation.

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 of operating a virtual machine includes determining a virtual machine signature, receiving an execution request from an application, and determining an application signature based on the request. The method further includes validating the application signature to the virtual machine signature and executing the application based on the validation.

Abstract: A graphical system resource monitor is provided to depict, in real-time, a data processing system's internal resource utilization. A window or viewport of a data processing system displays user specified internal system resources, such as memory, CPU, or peripheral device availability/utilization. This graphical representation of the `state` of the data processing system's resources is maintained in real-time, while the impact on the system's performance in providing such information is kept to a minimum. This is accomplished through a combination of various techniques, including specialized device drivers for the respective devices coupled with a unique data reduction technique. The graphical results of these resource monitors are continually updated in real-time. This real-time support provides an immediate and accurate representation of the internal operations of the data processing system. Further, these resources can be monitored at the process level of a multiprocessing system.

Abstract: A graphical system resource monitor is provided to depict, in real-time, a data processing system's internal resource utilization. A window or viewport of a data processing system displays user specified internal system resources, such as memory, CPU, or peripheral device availability/utilization. This graphical representation of the `state` of the data processing system's resources is maintained in real-time, while the impact on the system's performance in providing such information is kept to a minimum. This is accomplished through a combination of various techniques, including specialized device drivers for the respective devices coupled with a unique data reduction technique. The graphical results of these resource monitors are continually updated in real-time. This real-time support provides an immediate and accurate representation of the internal operations of the data processing system. Further, these resources can monitored at the process level of a multiprocessing system.

Abstract: A system and apparatus is described to check pages in memory that are allocated to all processes and the operating system, and to check the pages in memory that are allocated to each individual process, in order to determine total RAM usage and RAM usage for a particular process, respectively. In order to determine total RAM usage for all processes and the operating system, a page frame table is used to count all memory pages being used. System memory pages, all process pages and unassigned pages are marked in a page frame table using a specific marking process. These marked pages are then summed and categorized for their particular usage, i.e. free memory, system memory or process memory. The RAM memory usage for a particular process can also be determined. First, RAM usage from operating system control blocks assigned to the specific process is computed.