Recording in a program execution profile references to a memory-mapped active device
AssigneeATI International SRL
InventorsJohn S. Yates, Jr., David L. Reese, Korbin S. Van Dyke
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and a computer for execution of the method. As part of executing a stream of instructions, a series of memory loads is issued from a computer CPU to a bus, some directed to well-behaved memory and some directed to non-well-behaved devices in I/O space. Computer addresses are stored of instructions of the stream that issued memory loads to the non-well-behaved memory, the storage form of the recording allowing determination of whether the memory load was to well-behaved memory or not-well-behaved memory without resolution of any memory address stored in the recording.
Claims47
A method, comprising the steps of:
- as part of executing a stream of instructions, issuing a series of memory loads from a computer CPU to a bus, some directed to well-behaved memory and some directed to non-well-behaved devices in I/O space;
- recording in a storage of the computer addresses of instructions of the stream that issued memory loads to the non-well-behaved memory, the storage form of the recording allowing determination of whether the memory load was to well-behaved memory or not-well-behaved memory without resolution of any memory address stored in the recording.
A method, comprising the steps of:
- issuing a successful memory reference from a computer CPU to a bus;
- recording in a storage of the computer whether a device accessed over the bus by the memory reference is well-behaved memory or not-well-behaved memory.
A computer, comprising:
- a computer CPU designed to execute instructions, including generating memory read references on behalf of those instructions;
- profile monitoring circuitry designed to generate a record of a memory read reference that references a device other than well-behaved memory.
A method, comprising the steps of:
- issuing a successful memory reference from a computer CPU to a bus;
- as part of the processing of the instruction that generated the memory reference, recording in a storage of the computer whether a device accessed over the bus by the memory reference is well-behaved memory or at least one of the following classes of memory-mapped devices that are other than well-behaved:
- a device wherein a read of the device causes the device to change state, or
- a device wherein a read does not necessarily return the value most-recently written to the same address as the memory reference, or
- a device wherein two successive reads return distinct data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.