Non-intrusive processor instrumentation

A method for non-intrusive processor instrumentation, comprising:

• executing a software program by one or more hardware processors, wherein at least one hardware processor of the one or more hardware processors comprises at least one internal component having state information not stored in a register file of the at least one hardware processor, and sampler circuitry integrated within the at least one hardware processor and connected to the at least one internal component;
• sampling, by the sampler circuitry, a plurality of processor internal values, including the state information of the at least one internal component, without interrupting execution of the software program, where each processor internal value of the plurality of processor internal values is a value of one of a plurality of processor state elements;
• receiving, by at least one collector circuitry coupled to the sampler circuitry, the plurality of processor internal values from the sampler circuitry;
• and
• processing, by the at least one collector circuitry, the plurality of processor internal values while the one or more hardware processors continue normal operation.

A processor comprising:

• execution circuitry configured to execute instructions of a software program;
• a register file accessible to the execution circuitry;
• at least one internal component having state information not stored in the register file;
• and
• sampler circuitry, integrated within the processor, connected to the at least one internal component, and configured to sample a plurality of processor internal values, where each processor internal value is a value of one of a plurality of processor state elements, including values from the register file and the state information of the at least one internal component without interrupting operation of the execution circuitry, and configured to be coupled to at least one collector circuitry, where the at least one collector circuitry is configured to receive and process the plurality of processor internal values while the execution circuitry continues to execute the instructions.

A software program product for non-intrusive processor instrumentation comprises:

• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium;
• first program instructions for executing a software program by one or more hardware processors, where at least one of the one or more hardware processors comprises at least one internal component having state information not stored in a register file of the at least one hardware processor, and integrated sampler circuitry connected to the at least one internal component;
• second program instructions for configuring the sampler circuitry to control sampling of a plurality of processor internal values, including the state information of the at least one internal component, without interrupting execution of the software program;
• and
• third program instructions for analyzing, by at least one management component, processed data received from at least one collector circuitry, wherein the at least one collector circuitry is coupled to the sampler circuitry and configured to receive the plurality of processor internal values from the sampler circuitry;
• wherein the first, second, and third program instructions are executed by at least one computerized processor from the non-transitory computer readable storage medium.