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A hardware approach is presented for the design of performance measurement insmentation for a shared-memory, tightly coupled MIMD multiprocessor. The Resource Measurement System (REMS) is a non-intrusive, hardware measurement tool used to obtain both trace measurement and resource utilization information. This approach provides more detailed and extensive measurement information than alternative software or hybrid approaches without introducing artifacts into the test results. This is accomplished at a significantly higher tool cost than the alternative software or hybrid approaches. Certain features of todays microprocessors limit the applicability of such a hardware tool. Measurements obtained using this hardware tool on two kemel (smaU benchmark) routines are presented.

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Two approaches for the design of performance measurement instrumentation for a shared memory, tightly coupled, MIMD multiprocessor are presented. The TRAce Measurement System (TRAMS) is a hybrid measurement tool used to obtain trace measurement information. The Resource Measurement System (REMS) is a non-mtrusive hardware measurement tool used to obtain both trace measurement and resource utilization information. The TRAMS approach provides a hardware assist to the more traditional software approach of obtaining timestamps from the operating system at each event to be measured. This hardware assist reduces the artifact that is introduced in a test program and is a feasible and economical approach to providing measurement capabilities to a wide range of multiprocessors. Manufacturers could offer this type of measurement tool as a plug-in option. The REMS approach provides more detailed and extensive measurement information than does the TRAMS approach and introduces no artifact to the test program, but it does this at a significantly higher cost. When access to pertinent signals is restricted the applicability of such a hardware tool is limited.