Intel® Advisor User Guide

User Guide

Contents

Loop Markup to Minimize Analysis Overhead

Issue

Running your target application with the
Intel® Advisor
 can take substantially longer than running your target application without the
Intel® Advisor
.
Depending on an accuracy level and analyses you choose for a perspective, different overhead is added to your application execution time.
For example:
Runtime Overhead / Analysis
Survey
Characterization
Dependencies
MAP
Target application runtime with
Intel® Advisor
 compared to runtime without
Intel® Advisor
1.1x longer
2 - 55x longer
5 - 100x longer
5 - 20x longer

Solutions

Use the following techniques to skip
uninteresting
 loops and analyze only
interesting
 loops.

Select Loops by ID

Goal: Minimize collection overhead.
Applicable analyses:
Characterization with Trip Counts and FLOP collection enabled
, Dependencies, Memory Access Patterns.
Use when...
  • You want to perform a deeper analysis on only a few loops.
  • CLI environment: You cannot identify source file/line numbers, such as when you are analyzing a target application for which you do not have access to source code.
Info
: In the commands below, make sure to replace the
myApplication
 with your application executable path and name
before
 executing a command. If your application requires additional command line options, add them
after
 the executable name.
Prerequisites:
  1. Run a Survey analysis.
  2. advisor
     CLI environment: Identify the loop IDs for the loops of interest. 
    advisor --report=survey --project-dir=./advi_results -- ./myApplication
    In the report, the first column is the loop IDs.
Intel® Advisor
 reports tend to be very wide. Do one of the following to generate readable reports:
  • Set your console width appropriately to avoid line wrapping.
  • Pipe your report using the appropriate truncation command if you care only about the first few report columns.
After performing the prerequisites, do one of the following:
  • For Vectorization and CPU Roofline: Mark the loop(s) of interest by enabling the associated checkbox on the
    Survey Report
    .
    Then run a
    Characterization with Trip Counts and FLOP collection enabled
    , Dependencies, or Memory Access Patterns analysis.
  • For Offload Modeling: Go to
    Project Properties
    Performance Modeling
     and enter the CLI action option
    --select=
    <string>
     in the
    Other parameters
     field. For example,
    --select=5,10,12
    .
  • Mark the loop(s) of interest using the CLI action option
    --select=<string>
     (recommended) or
    --mark-up-list=
    <string>
     when running a
    Characterization with Trip Counts and FLOP collection enabled
    , Dependencies, or Memory Access Patterns analysis. For example, with the
    --select
     option: 
    advisor --collect=tripcounts --flop --project-dir=./advi_results --select=5,10,12 -- ./myApplication
    Then run a Characterization with Trip Counts and FLOP collections enabled, Dependencies, or Memory Access Patterns analysis.
There are different ways to select loops is in the CLI environment:
  • The
    advisor
     CLI action options
    --mark-up-list=<string>
     and
    --select=<string>
     merely simulate enabling a GUI checkbox when used within -collect action. They are active only for the duration of the
    --collect
     command.
  • The same options used with
    advisor
     CLI action actually enable a GUI checkbox. They are active beyond the duration of the
    -mark-up-loops
     command and applies to all downstream analyses, such as
    Characterization with Trip Counts and FLOP collection enabled
    , Dependencies, Memory Access Patterns.

Select Loops by Source File/Line Number

Minimize collection overhead.
Applicable analyses:
Characterization with Trip Counts and FLOP collection enabled
, Dependencies, Memory Access Patterns.
Use when...
  • You want to perform a deeper analysis on only a few loops.
  • CLI environment: You are analyzing a target application for which you have access to source code and can identify source file/line numbers.
Info
: In the commands below, make sure to replace the
myApplication
 with your application executable path and name
before
 executing a command. If your application requires additional command line options, add them
after
 the executable name.
Prerequisites:
  1. Run a Survey analysis.
  2. advisor
     CLI environment: If necessary, identify the source file and line number for the loops of interest. 
    advisor --report=survey --project-dir=./advi_results -- ./myApplication
After performing the prerequisites, do one of the following:
  • For Vectorization and CPU Roofline: Mark the loop(s) of interest by enabling the associated checkbox on the Survey report.
    Then run a Characterization with Trip Counts and FLOP collection enabled, Dependencies, or Memory Access Patterns analysis.
  • For Offload Modeling: Go to
    Project Properties
    Performance Modeling
     and enter the CLI action option
    --select=
    <string>
     in the
    Other parameters
     field. For example,
    --select=foo.cpp:34,bar.cpp:192
    .
  • Mark the loop(s) of interest using the CLI action option
    --select=<string>
     (recommended) or
    --mark-up-list=
    <string>
     for a Characterization with Trip Counts and FLOP collection enabled, Dependencies, or Memory Access Patterns analysis. For example, with the -select option: 
    advisor --collect=tripcounts --flop --project-dir=./advi_results --select=foo.cpp:34,bar.cpp:192 -- ./bin/myApplication
  • Mark the loop(s) of interest by enabling the associated checkbox on the
    Survey Report
    .
    Then run a
    Characterization with Trip Counts and FLOP collection enabled
    , Dependencies, or Memory Access Patterns analysis.
  • Mark the loop(s) of interest using the
    advisor
     CLI action and action option
    --select=<string>
    . For example: 
    advisor --mark-up-loops --select=foo.cpp:34,bar.cpp:192 --project-dir=./advi_results -- ./myApplication
    Then run a
    Characterization with Trip Counts and FLOP collection enabled
    , Dependencies, or Memory Access Patterns analysis.
  • There is essentially no difference between selecting loops by ID and selecting loops by source file/line in the GUI environment. The difference is in the
    advisor
     CLI environment:
    • The
      advisor
       CLI action option
      --mark-up-list=<string>
       merely simulates enabling a GUI checkbox; therefore it persists only for the duration of the
      --collect
       command.
    • The
      advisor
       CLI action and action option
      --select=<string>
       actually enables a GUI checkbox; therefore it persists beyond the duration of the
      --mark-up-loops
       command and applies to downstream analyses, such as
      Characterization with Trip Counts and FLOP collection enabled
      , Dependencies, and Memory Access Patterns.
  • If you use the
    --mark-up-loops
     CLI action to mark up loops, you can append and remove source file/line numbers for an analysis run after it using the
    advisor
     CLI action option
    --append=<string>
     and
    --remove=<string>
     respectively.

Select Loops by Criteria

Goal: Minimize collection overhead.
Applicable analyses: Dependencies, Memory Access Patterns.
Use when you want to perform a deeper analysis on loops chosen by criteria instead of by human input, such as when you are running the
Intel® Advisor
 with a collection preset or using automated scripts.
To implement in the
advisor
 CLI environment, run the commands similar to the following one by one from the command line or create a script similar to the following examples and run it to execute the commands automatically. Use the
--select
 (recommended) or
--loops
 option to select loops by criteria.
Info
: In the commands below, make sure to replace the
myApplication
 with your application executable path and name
before
 executing a command. If your application requires additional command line options, add them
after
 the executable name.
For example, to analyze loop-carried dependencies in loops/functions that have the
Assumes dependency present
 issue, use one of the following:
  • Example 1: 
    advisor --collect=survey --project-dir=./advi_results -- ./bin/myApplication
    advisor --collect=dependencies --project-dir=./advi_results  -- ./myApplicaton
  • Example 2: 
    advisor --collect=survey --project-dir=./advi_results -- ./bin/myApplication
    advisor --collect=dependencies select="scalar,has-issue" --project-dir=./advi_results  -- ./myApplicaton

Select Loops by Markup Algorithm

Goal: Minimize collection overhead.
Applicable analyses: Characterization with Trip Counts and FLOP collection enabled, Dependencies, Memory Access Patterns.
This is only applicable to the
Offload Modeling
 perspective.
Use
--select=r:markup=<algorithm>
 when you want to perform a deeper analysis on loops chosen by a pre-defined markup algorithm based on a programming model used and/or estimated offload profitability.
If you analyze an application that runs on a CPU, use the
gpu_generic
 algorithm. This algorithm selects all potentially profitable loops/functions for additional analyses to collect more data and make sure they can be safely offloaded.
If you analyze code regions that are already offloaded and use a specific programming model, use one of the following algorithms:
  • omp
     - Select OpenMP* loops.
  • dpcpp
     - Select Data Parallel C++ loops.
  • ocl
     - Select OpenCL™ loops.
  • daal
     - Select Intel® oneAPI Data Analytics Library loops.
  • tbb
     - Select Intel® oneAPI Threading Building Blocks loops.
Info
: In the commands below, make sure to replace the
myApplication
 with your application executable path and name
before
 executing a command. If your application requires additional command line options, add them
after
 the executable name.
For example, to run the
Offload Modeling
 and analyze potentially profitable code regions in details:
  • Example 1. Use the
    --select=r:markup=<algorithm>
     option with the
    --collect
     action option to select loops only for the specific analysis. 
    advisor --collect=survey --project-dir=./advi_results --static-instruction-mix -- ./myApplication
    advisor --collect=tripcounts --project-dir=./advi_results --flop --enable-cache-simulation  --target-device=gen11_icl --stacks --data-transfer=light  -- ./myApplication
    advisor --collect=dependencies --filter-reductions --loop-call-count-limit=16 --select markup=gpu_generic --project-dir=./advi_results -- ./myApplication
    advisor --collect=projection --project-dir=./advi_results
  • Example 2. Use the
    --select=r:markup=<algorithm>
     option with the
    --mark-up-loops
     action option in a separate step to select loops for all analysis executed after this command. 
    advisor --collect=survey --project-dir=./advi_results --static-instruction-mix -- ./myApplication
    advisor --collect=tripcounts --project-dir=./advi_results --flop --enable-cache-simulation  --target-device=gen11_icl --stacks --data-transfer=light  -- ./myApplication
    advisor --mark-up-loops --project-dir=./advi_results --select markup=gpu_generic -- ./myApplication
    advisor --collect=dependencies --filter-reductions --loop-call-count-limit=16 --project-dir=./advi_results -- ./myApplication
    advisor --collect=projection --project-dir=./advi_results
Currently, there is no GUI equivalent of the markup strategies. The
gpu_generic
 strategy is used by default.

Product and Performance Information

1

Performance varies by use, configuration and other factors. Learn more at www.Intel.com/PerformanceIndex.