System for monitoring computer system performance

A system for monitoring the performance of a computer system while the computer system is executing a program, the program including a plurality of source code modules in the form of a high level language, comprising the steps of:

• means for compiling each source code module into a corresponding object code module and associated relocation table and symbol table;
• means for translating said object code modules into a linked code module and logical symbol table, said linked code module being in the form of an intermediate language, said intermediate language having instructions independent of a particular computer system hardware architecture;
• storing said linked code module in a memory of the computer system;
• means for partitioning said linked code module into a plurality of basic program components using said associated relocation table and symbol table;
• navigational routines for tracing the execution flow through said linked code module prior to executing said linked code module to deduce structural information and execution flow information;
• means for locating, using said structural information, a specific program component in said linked code module while tracing the execution flow through said linked code module, said specific program component to be monitored;
• modifying routines for inserting a call instruction in said specific program component of said linked code module, said call insauction to transfer execution control to a user analysis routine when said specific program component is executed in the computer system;
• a code generator for generating machine executable code from said linked code module after inserting said call instruction;
• a processor of the computer system for executing said machine executable code;
• and
• said user analysis routine collecting performance data while said processor is executing the machine executable code.

A computer implemented method for collecting performance data of a computer system, the performance data including data states and execution states of the computer system, comprising:

• translating object code produced by a compiler into machine independent code and associated relocation tables and symbol tables;
• instrumenting the machine independent code using said associated relocation tables and symbol tables to insert a call instruction in the machine independent code, the call instruction to reference a user analysis routine;
• generating machine dependent code from the machine independent code including the call instruction;
• executing the machine dependent code in a processor of the computer system;
• and
• collecting the performance data of the computer system by the user analysis routine while executing the machine dependent code.