Hotspots Function Comparison Browser

The Hotspots Function Comparison Browser compares the performance of two Hotspot Detection Activities. It shows how much certain functions have sped up or slowed down, and the impacts of these changes on the overall application performance.

There are two display modes:
  • Simple mode: if there are no user defined process groups then the main panel shows a function comparison table for the My Application process group.

  • Tab mode: if there are one or more user defined process groups, then a tab is created for each group. Each tab shows a comparison table for the functions contained by that group. The predefined My Application group is shown in the first tab followed by other groups which are ordered by speedup. Process groups named Other Processes or Idle Time are not shown.

Environment Changes

The runtime behaviour of the application can be effected by certain environment variables set on the system. An extra panel will be available if changes to these environment variables are detected. For a list of the relevant environment variables please refer to the page on environment variables for performance tuning.

Function Impact Table

The top of the browser displays the names of the two activities being compared. The first activity name identifies the measured activity. The second activity name identifies the activity used as the base for the comparison.

By default, the functions in the table are sorted by the Impact column. You can sort by any other column by clicking on the column title.
Column Description
Function Name Shows the function or method name for C/C++ and Java/JNI applications or the procedure name for COBOL applications.
Relative Speedup Shows an individual function's speedup by comparing the CPU time sampled on the function in the two Activities. represents performance improvement. represents degradation.
Impact In simple mode or in the My Application tab, this column shows the impact of the CPU time change of an individual function to the overall speedup of the application. Otherwise, it shows the impact to overall speedup of functions contained in the process group. Performance improvement is visualized as a green bar from center to right. Degradation is visualized as a red bar from center to left.
Source File The source file where the function's definition is located. Source file name is in shorten format to save space. Hover over to see the full name in the tooltip.
Object File The object file compiled from the source file where the function's definition is located. will be shown if compiler options have changed between the Activities. The object file name is shortened to save the space. Hover over to see the full name in the tooltip.
Module The module that contains object file for the compiled function. The module name is shortened to save space. Hover over to see the full name in the tooltip.

More details are available in tooltips:

To see the ticks change in overall application speedup, hover over My Application text.

In tab mode, hover over the My Application tab title.

Context Menus

Command Description
Compare Source Shows the source changes between two activities in the source code compare editor. Only available if source tracking for the project is enabled.
Show Source in activity name Shows source code used in the activity identified by activity name.
Show Compiler Optimization Options Change Shows the changes of compiler optimization options when compiling source code to object file. Only available if there is a change.
Open Hotspots Browser for activity name Open Hotspots Browser for the activity identified by activity name.
Change impact threshold Change impact threshold. The functions with impact less than the threshold will not be shown in the table.
Preferences... Open preferences page.

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