Embedded Design Handbook

ID 683689
Date 8/28/2023
Public
Document Table of Contents

6.2.2.1. Software Profiling

Intel provides the following tools to profile the run-time behavior of your software system:

  • GNU profiler—The Nios® II EDS toolchain includes the gprof utility for profiling your application. This method of profiling reports how long various functions run in your application.
  • High resolution timer—The Platform Designer timer peripheral is a simple time counter that can determine the amount of time a given subroutine or code segment runs. You can read it at various points in the source code to calculate elapsed time between timer samples.
  • Performance counter peripheral—The Platform Designer performance counter peripheral can profile several different sections of code with a series of counter peripherals. This peripheral includes a simple software API that enables you to print out the results of these timers through the Nios® II processor's stdio services.

For more information about how to profile your software application, refer to AN391: Profiling Nios® II Systems.

For additional information about the Platform Designer timer peripheral, refer to the Interval Timer Core chapter in the Embedded Peripherals IP User Guide and to the Developing Nios® II Software chapter of this handbook.

For additional information about the Platform Designer performance counter peripheral, refer to the Performance Counter Core chapter in the Embedded Peripherals IP User Guide.