I recently moved from 17.0.1 to 17.1.1. I've noticed that the loop analysis section of the report file now shows the ii preceded by a "~". For example, 17.0.1 reported an ii of "1" and a "yes" under Pipelined. In 17.1.1 it still reports "yes" for pipelined but "~1" for the ii and the details column says that "ii is an approximation". I have other loops that report an ii of "~4", pipelined "yes" and bottleneck "ii" - but the detail section doesn't say the ii is an approximation.
If ii is an approximation when the report is generated - how do I know what the actual ii is after everything is compiled? If I have a loop that is critical for throughput, I need a way to know that it has been pipelined and what the ii is. How likely is the ii to go up/down after compilation? I'm hoping the only way isn't to run some throughput tests in HW after the second stage compilation. Given how long compiles take that would create a MAJOR development bottleneck when trying to improve loop performance.
