Patent ID: 8032875

Claim:
A method, comprising: accessing data stored in an event set, wherein the data stored in the event set comprises a plurality of events, wherein each event comprises data representing a respective runtime event that previously occurred during execution of a software application, and wherein the data representing the respective runtime event comprises a plurality of respective extended address element values that are associated with the runtime event; and applying a user-specified cost function to the data stored in the event set; wherein said applying comprises: determining a respective profiling object identifier value for each of one or more events in the event set dependent on one of the plurality of respective extended address element values included in the event, wherein the respective profiling object identifier value identifies a profiling object from whose perspective costs can be viewed, and wherein the one of the plurality of respective extended address element values corresponds to a hardware component associated with the represented runtime event, a software construct associated with the represented runtime event, or a data allocation construct associated with the represented runtime event; computing a respective cost metric value for each of the one or more events dependent on at least one extended address element value included in the event that corresponds to a cost associated with the respective profiling object identifier value and dependent on the user-specified cost function; and returning the respective profiling object identifier value of each of the one or more events and the respective cost metric value of each of the one or more events.