Patent ID: 11907100
Assignee: SIEMENS INDUSTRY SOFTWARE INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A method of tracing instruction execution on a processor of an integrated circuit chip in real time whilst the processor continues to execute instructions during clock cycles of the processor, the method comprising:
at tracing circuitry on the integrated circuit chip:
monitoring the instruction execution of the processor by:
counting, using an instruction counter, a number of successively retired instructions to form an instruction count, wherein the successively retired instructions are generated contiguously in time, wherein the instruction counter stops counting when the instruction counter identifies a time gap in which the processor does not retire an instruction; and
counting, using a stall counter, a number of subsequent contiguous clock cycles of the processor during which no instruction is retired to form a stall count, wherein, in response to a signal from the instruction counter identifying that the instruction counter has stopped the counting, the stall counter starts counting immediately following an end of a series of successively retired instructions that are generated contiguously in time;

generating a trace message which comprises the instruction count and the stall count; and
outputting the trace message.