How to Use Remote Call Profiler to Find Performance Problems

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With the Remote Call Profiler tool, you can profile an application and display the data collected from the application in a variety of formats within the graphical user interface (GUI) for the tool. You may be able to use this data to identify performance problems in the application. You may find the Remote Call Profiler tool helpful both during the development of the application and during the final stages before release.

To find performance problems, you must first insert probes into your application. You can then use the Remote Call Profiler tool to collect data from the application. With the collected data, you can then use the Remote Call Profiler views to identify performance problems.

Hardware and Software Assumptions

  • You are familiar with remote tools. For more information, see Remote Tools.
  • You are familiar with using the Build tool. For more information, see Build Tool.
  • You are familiar with creating and configuring sources files. For more information, see Sources File.

To track your progress in the following table, select the check box next to each step.

  Step Topic
1. Open an existing platform, or create a new platform. Creating a Platform
2. If you have not built your platform, build the platform. Building a Platform
3. In the directory that contains the source code for your application, create a sources file and a makefile file. Creating a Sources File and Makefile File for an Application
4. Familiarize yourself with CallCAP and FastCAP probes, and then decide which type of probe you want to use.
Note   FastCAP instrumentation is not supported on x86 microprocessors.
Characteristics of FastCAP and CallCAP Probes
5. Build probes into your application to support profiling with Remote Call Profiler. Building an Application That Supports Remote Call Profiler Data Collection
6. Establish a hardware connection between your development workstation and the target device, and then configure Platform Builder to download the OS image to the target device over the established connection.
  • If your target device is a CEPC, you must boot an OS image on the CEPC.
  • If your target device is custom hardware, you can use the steps for booting an OS image on a CEPC as a model for establishing a connection to your custom hardware. For more information, see How to Configure a CEPC to Download an OS Image.
  • If your target device is the Emulator, you must download your OS image to the Emulator. For more information, see Downloading an OS Image to the Emulator.
 Configuring a Connection for Downloading and Debugging
7. Download the OS image to the target device. Downloading an OS Image to a Target Device
8. Open the Remote Call Profiler tool, and then configure the connection from the tool to the target device.

When you configure the connection, perform the following steps:

  • In the Transport box, choose KITL Transport for Windows CE, Configure, and then in the Named connection box, choose the named connection that you used in the Platform Builder IDE to connect to the target device.
  • In the Startup Server box, choose CESH Server for Windows CE, Configure, and then choose Directory containing last image booted by Platform Builder.
 Configuring the Connection to a Target Device Using Platform Manager
9. Connect the Remote Call Profiler tool to the target device. Connecting to a Target Device with a Remote Tool
10. Use the Collection Control window to run your application and collect data from the application.

After you choose Finish to stop collecting data and view the collected data, in the Timeline window you should see a bar that contains a variety of colors representing data collected from your application. For more information about the Timeline window, see Timeline Window.

 Controlling Profiling with the Remote Call Profiler Collection Control Window
11. Familiarize yourself with the view windows for Remote Call Profiler.

You can use the view windows to analyze in a variety of formats the data collected from your application.

 Remote Call Profiler View Windows
12. Save the information collected by Remote Call Profiler as an .icp file. Saving Data Collected by Remote Call Profiler

See Also

Platform Development How-to Topics | Remote Call Profiler

 Last updated on Friday, October 08, 2004

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