[comp.realtime] Cross profiling tools for VxWorks?

dove@peach.uucp (Webster &) (11/25/89)

Please send me any recommendations for tools that would allow me to
determine the profile (in the UNIX sense of gprof) of all processes in
a VxWorks environment.  I find the existing Spy and Timex tools
cumbersome.

I am interested in any mechanism that would allow me to find the
bottlenecks and speed them up (e.g. software histograms, hardware CPU
monitors, etc.).  I am especially interested in responses from those
with actual usage experience.

Thanks

Web

--
		Dr. Webster Dove
		Special Computing Applications
		Advanced Technology Engineering
		Sanders Associates (a Lockheed Company)
		uunet!rocket!dove

sbrandt@herds.SRC.Honeywell.COM (Scott Brandt) (12/06/89)

In article <DOVE.89Nov25105609@peach.uucp> dove@peach.uucp (Webster &) writes:
>Please send me any recommendations for tools that would allow me to
>determine the profile (in the UNIX sense of gprof) of all processes in
>a VxWorks environment.  I find the existing Spy and Timex tools
>cumbersome.
>
>I am interested in any mechanism that would allow me to find the
>bottlenecks and speed them up (e.g. software histograms, hardware CPU
>monitors, etc.).  I am especially interested in responses from those
>with actual usage experience.
>

I worked on a very large system using vxWorks as the OS and also found
that I needed to speed up my processes.  I used a very primitive yet 
extremely effective trick to monitor process times etc.  What I did was
have my various processes toggle bits on a data port at different places
in their execution.  I then connected an oscilloscope to the data lines
and watched my processes execute and interact.  This proved to be very
enlightening as to the actual execution times and locations of bottlenecks
etc.  Because the writing of the bits in the data port is so easy (1 or 2
instructions), this method does not noticably affect the executions times of 
the processes being watched.  I hope this helps.

Scott Brandt