Interpreting Intel SDE avx/sse transition tracker

[Bram_S_]

Hello, I am running Intel SDE in 'ast' mode (AVX/SSE Transition tracker.) on Mac OSX. I struggle to interpret the results.

First off, in the output, it shows function addresses, not function names. Should it not show the symbols? I built my app with -g.

Next, this is the output I see: are these numbers indicative of excessive transitions? Or are they in a normal range?

         Penalty      Dynamic      Dynamic                                                          State 
              in   AVX to SSE   SSE to AVX   Static             Dynamic         Previous           Change 
           Block   Transition   Transition   Icount Executions   Icount            Block            Block 
================ ============ ============ ======== ========== ======== ================ ================ 
  0x7fff90085eca            1            0       14          3       42   0x7fff90086596   0x7fff9742a3f7
#Initial state from routine:  *unknown* @ 0x7fff9742a3f7
#Previous block in routine:   *unknown* @ 0x7fff90086596
#Penalty detected in routine: *unknown* @ 0x7fff90085eca
  0x7fff9781fa9a            1            0       27          3       81   0x7fff9781fa77   0x7fff9742a3f7
#Initial state from routine:  *unknown* @ 0x7fff9742a3f7
#Previous block in routine:   *unknown* @ 0x7fff9781fa77
#Penalty detected in routine: *unknown* @ 0x7fff9781fa9a
  0x7fff900841e0            0            1       16          9      144   0x7fff8ad807e4   0x7fff90087fed
#Initial state from routine:  *unknown* @ 0x7fff90087fed
#Previous block in routine:   *unknown* @ 0x7fff8ad807e4
#Penalty detected in routine: *unknown* @ 0x7fff900841e0
  0x7fff90087fed            1            0        3         93      279   0x7fff90087fe7   0x7fff9742a3f7
#Initial state from routine:  *unknown* @ 0x7fff9742a3f7
#Previous block in routine:   *unknown* @ 0x7fff90087fe7
#Penalty detected in routine: *unknown* @ 0x7fff90087fed
  0x7fff90087ff8            0            1        6         51      306   0x7fff90087fed   0x7fff9781fa9a
#Initial state from routine:  *unknown* @ 0x7fff9781fa9a
#Previous block in routine:   *unknown* @ 0x7fff90087fed
#Penalty detected in routine: *unknown* @ 0x7fff90087ff8
  0x7fff90088c70            0            2        9        168     1512   0x7fff90088c25   0x7fff90088c00
#Initial state from routine:  __platform_memset$VARIANT$Unknown @ 0x7fff90088c00
#Previous block in routine:   __platform_memset$VARIANT$Unknown @ 0x7fff90088c25
#Penalty detected in routine: *unknown* @ 0x7fff90088c70
  0x7fff90088c00            2            0        8          7       56      0x10708dc84   0x7fff9742a3f7
#Initial state from routine:  *unknown* @ 0x7fff9742a3f7
#Previous block in routine:   __stubs @ 0x10708dc84
#Penalty detected in routine: __platform_memset$VARIANT$Unknown @ 0x7fff90088c00
# SUMMARY 
# AVX_to_SSE_transition_instances:        5
# SSE_to_AVX_transition_instances:        4
# Dynamic_insts:                          655202104
# AVX_to_SSE_instances/instruction:       0.0000
# SSE_to_AVX_instances/instruction:       0.0000
# AVX_to_SSE_instances/100instructions:   0.0000
# SSE_to_AVX_instances/100instructions:   0.0000

Thanks!

[MarkC_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hi, the transitions might be in library code that is not compiled with symbols.  Either way, that is a small number of transitions. But if the code is also very small relative to the transition penalty and called frequently then these penalties could obviously add up.