Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!wuarchive!rex!uflorida!travis!tom From: tom@ssd.csd.harris.com (Tom Horsley) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Information on the PIXIE Instruction Simulator Message-ID: Date: 18 Jan 91 12:44:48 GMT References: <1991Jan15.162526.2139@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <44986@mips.mips.COM> Sender: news@travis.csd.harris.com Distribution: na Organization: Harris Computer Systems Division Lines: 34 In-reply-to: mash@mips.COM's message of 17 Jan 91 22:18:50 GMT The 88k based Night Hawk 4000 series machines that Harris Computer Systems make come with a tool similar in many ways to the PIXIE tool that comes with MIPS systems. This is the analyze88 tool. It can read an existing executable and generate a new executable patched to generate basic block counts and dump the information to a file when the program exits. The report88 program can then be used to generate various reports from the basic block statistics. In addition to the profiling capability, analyze88 also serves as a post-linker code optimizer (reducing many of the 2 instruction sequences compilers generate for memory references to one instruction, by putting the most commonly referenced high 16 bit address values in reserved registers that act as program wide common sub-expressions). It can also generate annotated dis-assembly listings showing the static instruction timing within each basic block, where instructions are blocked due to resources that are not available yet, etc. Like PIXIE, it has the limitation that it cannot tell you anything about the cache, the timings it generates assume the 88k will never have to wait on memory. P.S. I gratefully acknowledge that many of the ideas for analyze88 came from things I heard about PIXIE, they are all great ideas, and the tool has been enormously beneficial to us in-house at Harris in helping to make our 88k compilers generate unsurpassed quality code for the 88k (shameless plug :-). -- ====================================================================== domain: tahorsley@csd.harris.com USMail: Tom Horsley uucp: ...!uunet!hcx1!tahorsley 511 Kingbird Circle Delray Beach, FL 33444 +==== Censorship is the only form of Obscenity ======================+ | (Wait, I forgot government tobacco subsidies...) | +====================================================================+