Efficient call sequence restoration method

An article comprising:

• a non-transitory machine accessible medium having a plurality of machine readable instructions, wherein when the plurality of machine readable instructions are executed by a processor, the plurality of machine readable instructions provide for collecting program control flow information by:
• determining changed and unchanged memory regions in a conventional memory area, the conventional memory area being dedicated to store procedure linkage information, by comparing contents of the conventional memory area with contents of a first data structure;
• collecting procedure linkage information from all changed memory regions of the conventional memory area;
• forming a second data structure to reflect all collected procedure linkage information elements along with references to original locations of said elements within the conventional memory area;
• marking unchanged memory regions as changed if an address range between at least one collected procedure linkage element and any point within a changed memory region being currently processed intersects address ranges of the unchanged memory regions;
• combining the second data structure with portions of the first data structure corresponding to the unchanged memory regions of the conventional memory area;
• and
• substituting the second data structure for the first data structure after all changed memory regions have been processed.

A system that collects program control flow information, comprising:

• a processor;
• a conventional memory area dedicated to store procedure linkage information coupled to the processor;
• logic to determine changed and unchanged memory regions in the conventional memory area by comparing contents of the conventional memory area with contents of a first data structure;
• logic to collect procedure linkage information from all changed memory regions of the conventional memory area;
• logic to form a second data structure to reflect all collected procedure linkage information elements along with references to original locations of said elements within the conventional memory area;
• logic to mark unchanged memory regions as changed if an address range between at least one collected procedure linkage element and any point within a changed memory region being currently processed intersects address ranges of the unchanged memory regions;
• logic to combine the second data structure with portions of the first data structure corresponding to the unchanged memory regions of the conventional memory area;
• and
• logic to substitute the second data structure for the first data structure after all changed memory regions have been processed.