Method and apparatus for autonomic test case feedback using hardware assistance for code coverage

A method in a data processing system of presenting coverage data for code, the method comprising:

• receiving, by an instruction cache, code for execution;
• responsive to the code being executed by an execution unit, sending a signal, by a completion buffer, to the instruction cache that the code has executed, wherein the completion buffer comprises information identifying the code for which execution has completed;
• responsive to receiving the signal from the completion buffer, setting, by the instruction cache, in metadata, an instruction access indicator, wherein the metadata comprises a prefetch indicator in the form of a pointer, an identification of data to be prefetched from a data structure identified by the pointer, and an identification of the data through the use of an offset or an address, wherein each instruction access indicator is associated with a different portion of the code, and wherein each instruction access indicator is initialized as being unset prior to execution of its associated code portion;
• obtaining the coverage data containing instruction access indicators associated with the code;
• generating a presentation for the coverage data, wherein each set instruction access indicator is identified in the presentation;
• and
• identifying unset instruction access indicators that have remained unset during the execution of the code by the processor, wherein each unset instruction access indicator is associated with an unexecuted portion of the code, and wherein each unset instruction access indicator is identified in the presentation.