The capture, characterization, and performance analysis of Macintosh traces

Trace-driven processor modeling is a well established performance analysis method. The quality of the end product is reflected in the reality of the trace suite used while developing the microarchitecture of the processor. In this paper, Apple´s requirements for a suite of traces is outlined, concentrating on the characteristics of the applications and data sets traced. Some of the alternatives in trace collection methods are discussed and contrasted. A hardware based address collection utility is described in combination with analysis software for generating traces of Macintosh behaviour. The traced applications are discussed and the characteristics of the traces are presented. Some system-level performance issues are discussed illustrating the use of the traces. Finally, future directions and improvements in the trace suite, trace capture hardware, and analysis software is proposed.