Granular measurement of processor performance in executing sections of software code

A system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a storage device storing one or more computer programs having one or more sections of software code for which performance of the processors is to be measured;
• and,
• a mechanism to, for each section of software code, maintain a clock corresponding to how long the section of software code has been executed by the processors.

A computer-readable medium having one or more programs stored thereon to perform a method comprising, for each section of software code of a plurality of sections of software code:

• resetting a clock associated with the section of software code;
• detecting that the section of software code is beginning to be executed;
• in response to detecting that the section of software code is beginning to be executed,
• starting the clock associated with the section of software code;
• detecting that the section of software code is no longer being executed;
• in response to detecting that the section of software code is no longer being executed,
• stopping the clock associated with the section of software code;
• and,
• outputting a value of the clock associated with the section of software code, where the value corresponds to the processor performance in executing the section of software code,
• wherein the clock associated with a given section of software code is different than the clocks associated with other sections of software code.