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Intel® Parallel Amplifier Under the Hood

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:00:00 -0700

Intel® Parallel Amplifier’s three analysis types are designed to each give you insight into different aspects of your program’s performance. Each level of analysis collects additional information. Here’s how it works.

Hotspots

The first type of analysis, Hotspots, is the most lightweight. Running it only takes about as much time as it takes to run your application normally (outside of Intel® Parallel Amplifier). While your app executes, Intel Parallel Amplifier’s data collector will periodically take samples. For each sample, the collector cooperates with the operating system to interrupt your program and gather data. It records the instruction pointer (IP) for each CPU core that is executing your app, as well as the call stack (saved as part of the O/S’s data structures). Once your application finishes executing, Intel Parallel Amplifier takes all of the IP samples and uses them to figure out how long each function was executing, and it uses all of the call stack samples to create a Call Tree for the whole program. In order to create the hotspots list and the call tree, Intel Parallel Amplifier also uses information about your program’s data and instruction space stored in its program debug database (.pdb file).

Concurrency

The second type of analysis, Concurrency, works in the same way but collects a bit more information. It also records data on the status of each of the application’s threads – running, ready to run, and blocked. Once all the samples have been collected, Intel Parallel Amplifier analyzes the data to determine the percentage of time your application’s threads were active. This is called the Concurrency Level, and it is broken down per function. Ideally, the concurrency level for your app should match the number of processors on the system – this is what Intel Parallel Amplifier calls Fully Utilized.

Locks and Waits

The last type of analysis is called Locks and Waits, and it is the most processor intensive. Your application may take longer to run under Locks and Waits analysis, and here’s why. In addition to collecting the data above, Intel Parallel Amplifier will add instructions to your compiled program. These instructions are placed wherever your program uses threading and synchronization API calls, and their purpose is to measure the wait times elapsed whenever a thread is not active. This timing information is combined with symbol information found in the .pdb file to create a picture of where your application is waiting, and what it is waiting on. Locks and other structures which might cause threads to wait are called Synchronization Objects. After running this analysis Intel Parallel Amplifier will show you a list of these objects along with the wait time for each and the concurrency of your app during the wait.

How to use Intel(R) Parallel Amplifier with application compiled with symbols but source files are not available

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:00:00 -0700

Some users have an EXE file and related DLL files (with corresponding PDB files), but have no sources for EXE or DLLs. Can they use Intel(R) Parallel Amplifier in this situation?

Yes! The Intel(R) Parallel Amplifier is supported on Microsoft* Visual Studio* 2005/2008 - the user should create .sln file, .vcproject file in Solution Explorer.

1. Use wizard to create a new project for existing code

2. Specify project file location and project file name (it could be same as your EXE file)

3. Add existing item (EXE file) to current project

4. Manually create "Debug" folder under project file location.

5. Manually copy all EXE/DLL files and PDB files to the "Debug" folder

6. Ensure that you can run "Debug\Start Without Debugging" in Microsoft* Visual Studio*, then you can run Intel(R)Parallel Amplifier.

XML Benchmark Tool 1.2: ACCEPT End User License Agreement and DOWNLOAD

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Description

The XML Benchmark Tool 1.2 (XBT) is an XML performance measurement tool, provided freely by Intel. It provides a framework that allows a user to analyze the performance of various XML processing engines and compare the results. The XML Benchmark Tool allows performance testing of XML parsing (SAX, StAX and DOM), XSLT, XML Schema validation, and XPath operations. It is also extendable, allowing a user to write their own drivers to test other XML processing engines.

The XML Benchmark Tool supports both IA-32 and Intel® 64 architectures, the Intel® Core™ i7 processor instruction set, or compatible platforms and runs on Windows* and Linux* operating systems. The framework allows the testing of Java* and C++ based XML processing engines.

Please email intelsoainfo@intel.com for support questions and to provide feedback on the XML Benchmark Tool. Support is not available via premier.intel.com.

License Agreement

IMPORTANT - READ BEFORE COPYING, INSTALLING OR USING.  Do not copy, install, or use the "Materials" provided under this license agreement ("Agreement"), until you have carefully read the following terms and conditions.  By copying, installing, or otherwise using the Materials, you agree to be bound by the terms of this Agreement. If you do not agree to the terms of this Agreement, do not copy, install, or use the Materials.   End User License Agreement for the XML Benchmark Tool   1. LICENSE DEFINITIONS:   A. "Materials" are defined as the software in source and object code formats, documentation, license key codes and other materials, including any updates and upgrade thereto, that are provided to you under this Agreement.   B. “Source Code” is defined as the Materials provided in human readable format, whether unmodified or modified by you.   2. LICENSE GRANT:   A. 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Readme | Release Notes

How to analyze an application without having a Visual Studio* project

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:00:00 -0800

Intel® Parallel Amplifier and Intel® Parallel Inspector are fully integrated applications within Microsoft Visual Studio* and so require a Visual Studio project to store the configuration needed for testing. So how do you use the Amplifier or Inspector on an application for which you only have the binary files?

There are two ways to create an Amplifier or Inspector analysis project when all you have is the .exe and associated .dlls. The first uses a command prompt window. Within the command prompt window, type a command similar to the following:

devenv /debugexe MyApplication.exe --app-param1 value1 --app-switch1

This command will start the Visual Studio IDE, create a project for MyApplication.exe application and set the application's options. Next, right-click the project in the Visual Studio Solution Explorer or find the tool bar and start Amplifier or Inspector as usual. The results will be stored in My Amplifier or Inspector Results directory, which is created near the executable. You can override where the results are stored in preferences and target them to a specific directory.

The second method utilizes the Visual Studio environment. Start Visual Studio and create a solution based on a single executable file: File -> Open -> Project/Solution.

Select your .exe file. A solution with the same name as the .exe file is created. Save the solution, then right-click the project in the Visual Studio Solution Explorer or find the tool bar and start Amplifier or Inspector as usual.