Patent ID: 8245199

Claim:
A computer implemented method for executing a plurality of instructions, the computer implemented method comprising: displaying via a graphical user interface a plurality of sets of instructions during execution of the plurality of sets of instructions, wherein different colors are used in the graphical user interface indicating a frequency of execution of each of the plurality of sets of instructions; responsive to receiving via the graphical user interface a selection of a set of instructions in the plurality of sets of instructions, determining whether the set of instructions is a set of instrumentation instructions; determining whether a processor executing the plurality of sets of instructions is in an instrumentation mode based on a mode field in a register of the processor that is set via the graphical user interface during the execution of the plurality of sets of instructions if the set of instructions is the set of instrumentation instructions; determining, by the processor, whether the processor or another processor is a target processor that executes the set of instrumentation instructions based on a target field in the register of the processor if the processor is in the instrumentation mode, wherein the processor includes a plurality of different types of duplicate resources for executing the plurality of sets of instructions using a first set of the plurality of different types of duplicate resources located within the processor and executing the set of instrumentation instructions using a second set of the plurality of different types of duplicate resources located within the processor so that the first set of the plurality of different types of duplicate resources are locked when the processor is in the instrumentation mode to prevent changes to the first set of the plurality of different types of duplicate resources until after the second set of the plurality of different types of duplicate resources completes execution of the set of instrumentation instructions; and executing the set of instrumentation instructions using the second set of the plurality of different types of duplicate resources located within the processor if the processor is the target processor.