sysperfana/perfinvestigator/com.nokia.carbide.cpp.pi.doc.user/html/reference/analyzer/view_performance_counters.htm
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<h2>Performance Counters View</h2>
<p>Use the <strong>Performance Counters</strong> view to display information on
performance counter traces. By default, the Performance Counters view opens up
as minimised on the PIAnalyzer main view. To view the graphs, click the restore
button <img src="images\minimize_restore_graph.png" width="16" height="16"> or
the maximize button <img src="images\maximize_graph.png" width="16"
height="16"> on the Title bar.</p>
<p>The Performance Counters displayed in the view include two user selected
traces (A and B in Figure 1) and CPU cycles (C in Figure 1). A MIPS (Million
Instructions Per Second) counter is also available if <b>Instructions
executed</b> has been selected as one of the traces.</p>
<p>You can select which traces are displayed in the graphs view by clicking the
check box next to the trace name in the legend table below the graphs. When
several traces are selected, a separate graph line is displayed for each trace,
as shown in Figure 1. </p>
<p>In the top left-hand corner of each graph line, the following information
displayed:</p>
<ul>
<li>type of the trace,</li>
<li>the sampling interval (1 sample per millisecond in Figure 1),</li>
<li>the minimum and maximum values over the whole duration of the trace.
(Note that the legend table lists the minimum and maximum values only for
the selected timeframe.) </li>
</ul>
<p>Note that the scaling of the graphs changes according to the maximum values
for each graph. You can see the vertical axis values for each graph on the left
side of the graph.</p>
<p>A legend table is displayed below the graphs.</p>
<p align="center"><img
src="images/performance_counters_view_all_graphs.png"></p>
<p class="figure">Figure 1. Performance Counters view with all trace graphs
displayed</p>
<p></p>
<p>Description of the table columns: </p>
<ul>
<li>The <b>Char</b> column contains an identifier for each trace.</li>
<li>The <b>Name</b> column contains the type of performance counter that was
traced.</li>
<li>The <b>Average (1/ms)</b> column contains the average occurrence of the
event that was traced, within the selected timeframe (for example, the
average number of cache misses per millisecond, as shown in Figure 1).</li>
<li>The <b>Sum</b> column contains the total number of event occurrences
within the selected timeframe. (not included for MIPS)</li>
<li>The <b>Min (1/ms)</b> column contains the minimum occurrence of the event
that was traced, within the selected timeframe (for example, minimum number
of data stalls per millisecond, as show in Figure 1).</li>
<li>The <b>Max (1/ms)</b> column contains the maximum occurrence of the event
that was traced, within the selected timeframe (for example, maximum number
of data stalls per millisecond, as show in Figure 1).</li>
<li>The <b>Per A</b> / <b>Per B</b> / <b>Per C</b> columns show the ratio of
the values of the different traces (For example, Per A shows the number of
events in the sum column of each trace divided by the sum of trace A). (not
included for MIPS)</li>
</ul>
<p>Check the boxes at the right side of the table to select the traces for the
graphs view.</p>
<p>Columns may be reordered, resized, and sorted by clicking or dragging column
headers.</p>
<p>You can right-click on the table to open a context menu, where you can
select to copy either selected lines or the entire table to clipboard; or to
save the table to CSV format. </p>
<br>
<p><strong>MIPS counter and graph</strong></p>
<p>The Million Instructions Per Second (MIPS) graph gives you a general idea of
CPU speed in a measured use case. The basic use case for the MIPS analysis
would be to check any low areas in the graph since they may reveal unoptimized
features, for example, in terms of memory access (reads and writes). The higher
the MIPS values, the better and the faster the CPU is in executing
instructions.</p>
<p>A MIPS (Million Instructions Per Millisecond) graph is displayed in the
Performance Counters view, when <b>Instructions executed</b> has been selected
as one of the counters. If <b>Instructions executed</b> has been selected, the
dialog below is displayed during PIAnalyser file import:</p>
<p align="center"><img src="images/MIPS_speed_dialog.png"></p>
<p class="figure">Figure 1. MIPS Graph Generation</p>
<p>The processor speed information is needed for calculating the data for the
MIPS graph. The rest of the data for the calculation is included in the
<b>Instructions executed</b> and <b>CPU cycles</b> counters.</p>
<p>The MIPS counter information is displayed in the graphs view and the legend
table together with the other performance counters. Note, however, that for
MIPS only <b>Average (1/ms)</b>, <b>Min (1/ms)</b>, and <b>Max (1/ms)</b>
information is displayed in the legend table.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><strong>Related references </strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="../../reference/analyzer/traceable_events.htm">Traceable Event
Types</a></li>
<li><a href="../../reference/profiler/Prof_counter_settings.htm">PIProfiler
Performance Counter Settings</a></li>
<li><a href="main_view.htm">Analyzer View</a></li>
</ul>
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