A study of machine‐level software profile

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Abstract
The instruction mix of a CDC CYBER/74 computer in a university environment was monitored, and in this paper frequencies of execution for the most commonly used instructions are given. From these measurements we make a number of observations about several aspects of computing patterns. One observation is the fact that if we exclude the idle loop of the operating system, the percentage of occurrences for each type of instruction over various time intervals is constant. This fact is used to define a machine‐level software profile (MLSP) for the type of machine operations in the given computing environment. It is shown that the MLSP could be used to find machine utilization and the extent to which software takes advantage of machine architecture, and as a consistent method to improve the performance of a machine configuration.

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