Cool Tools - Simple Performance Optimization Tool - SPOT

Description

The tool SPOT produces a report on the performance of an application. The SPOT report contains detailed information about various common conditions that impact performance. For example, it will report on the amount of time lost because the data that the application needs was not resident in the processor's cache.

One of the key requirements for the tool was that it should be simple to use. The SPOT report can be generated by simply typing
    spot <spot parameters> <application> <application parameters>

In this scenario, the application is run multiple times; each of these times a separate part of the report is generated.

SPOT can be attached to an existing process using
    spot <spot parameters> -P <pid>

This approach generates a similar report.

The SPOT report can be viewed by accessing spot_summary.html in a browser. By default, spot_summary.html is in the current directory. The SPOT report contains hyperlinked profiles of the application. These profiles enable navigation down to the lines of source taking the application run time (if the source line information is available), to the hot parts of the disassembly, and within the disassembly.

To obtain the most information when using SPOT, it is recommended that the application be compiled with either the Sun^TM Studio 11 and above, or the GCC for SPARC^® Systems compilers, with the flags -g (or -g0 for C++) and -xbinopt=prepare, and an optimization level of at least -xO1, in addition to the flags which would have been normally used.

Download and Install

If you are using the Sun Studio 12 Compilers and Tools, please follow the steps on CMT Developer Tools for Sun Studio 12 to download and install. SPOT will work on both the SPARC and the x64 platforms.

If you are using the Sun Studio 11 Compilers and Tools, please follow the steps on Add-on Cool Tools for Sun Studio 11 to download and install.

Documents

The user guide for SPOT contains more detailed information about the tool, including an example of using SPOT on a test program.

Support

SPOT is provided without support. However, CoolTools Forum are available where questions and discussions about installing, using, or improving SPOT can be posted. Posting in the forums does not guarantee a response. Please send your feedback to: .