Atec Agilent-16700 Series - Manual (Page 55)

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Post-Processing and Analysis Tool Sets
System Performance Analysis
Optimize System Performance
Your design has to meet consistent
performance requirements over a
range of operating conditions and
over a specific time period. Using the
system performance analysis tool set,
you can obtain answers to many of
your questions concerning perform-
ance and responsiveness, software
execution coverage, debug and
system parameter analysis, etc.
Obtain Answers to the Following
Questions:
Performance and Responsiveness
• What functions monopolize micro-
processor bandwidth?
• What functions are never execut-
ed? What is the relative workload
of each processor in a multiple-
processor system?
• What is the minimum, maximum,
and average execution time of a
function (including calls)?
• How many interrupts does the
system receive per consecutive
time slice?
• What is the response time of the
target system to an external
event?
Software Execution Coverage
• Do test suites provide thorough
coverage of the application?
• Is this function or variable
accessed by the application?
Debug and System Parameter
Analysis
• Does this pointer address the right
memory buffer?
• How does the system react when it
receives too many simultaneous
interrupts?
• Is the stack size adequate?
• Is the cache size adequate?
Analog, Timing, and Bus
Measurements
• What is the setup/hold time of this
signal or group of signals?
• Is the distribution of voltages for
this analog signal acceptable?
• Is this signal spending too much
time in the switching region?
• What bus states occur most often?
• What is the bus loading?
• How does the bus affect overall
system performance?
• How much time is spent in bus
arbitration?
• What is the histogram of bus
transfer times?
Processor/Cache Measurements
• Which microprocessor bus states
occur most often?
• Which peripherals are used most
often?
• What is the profile of load sharing
in a multiple-processor system?
• How does the cache size affect
system performance?
Product Description
The Agilent Technologies B4600B sys-
tem performance analysis (SPA) tool
set profiles an entire target system at
all levels of abstraction—from signals
to high-level source code. It clearly
identifies the components that affect
the behavior of your system. In addi-
tion to performance analysis, it can
be used at any time to test and docu-
ment many other characteristics,
such as memory coverage and
response time.
The SPA tool set generates statistical
representations of the captured data.
It shows the amount and percent of
time spent in each of the targeted
functions or data locations. Data is
conveniently displayed in histograms
and bar charts, reducing the time you
spend analyzing results and identify-
ing system bottlenecks.