Hardware event based flow control of counters
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorJames S. Chapple
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An integrated circuit chip includes performance counters. Each one of the performance counters counts data events. There are a plurality of registers associated with the performance counters. At least one of the registers controls the stopping, starting and counting of an associated performance counter. A command trigger issues a command to the register upon the detection of a hardware event. The command initiates the starting, stopping or counting of the counter associated with the register.
Claims16
An integrated circuit chip comprising:
- a plurality of counters, each one of said plurality of counters counting data events in said integrated circuit chip;
- a plurality of registers associated with each one of said plurality of performance counters, at least one of said plurality of registers storing a command controlling the associated performance counter upon the detection of a hardware event specified in the command;
- and
- a command trigger issuing an indication upon the detection of the hardware event specified in the command, said counter associated with said at least one register being controlled according to the stored command in response to the command trigger.
A method of successively monitoring data samples relating to the performance of an integrated circuit chip, comprising:
- storing a command in a command register in said integrated circuit chip, said command including a command trigger indicating a hardware event and an operation code indicating a control operation to be performed upon detection of the hardware event indicated by said command trigger;
- controlling a counter in said integrated circuit chip in accordance with said operation code included in said command to count events relating to the performance of the integrated circuit chip;
- and
- obtaining data samples from the counter relating to the performance of the integrated circuit chip.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.