Performance Analyzer User Interface
The Performance Analyzer window has a menu bar, a toolbar, and a navigation panel. You use each of these to interact with Performance Analyzer and your data.
Menu Bar
The menu bar contains the following command menus.
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File provides several options you can use to profile applications, open experiments, and compare or aggregate data from multiple experiments. Other options include the ability to export the content of a data view to several different formats and connect to a remote host use the Performance Analyzer on files and applications located there.
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Views enables you to select the data views that you want Performance Analyzer to display in the navigation bar. You can also click the Views + button or More Views in the navigation bar to add more data views.
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Tools provides options for filtering data, hiding library functions in the data views, and other settings.
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Help provides links to integrated documentation for Performance Analyzer including links to new features, quick reference, keyboard shortcuts, and troubleshooting information. You can also press the F1 key on your keyboard to display information about the current view in Performance Analyzer.
Tool Bar
The toolbar provides buttons you can use as shortcuts for commands, a view mode selector that you can use to change the way data is displayed for Java and OpenMP experiments, and a Find tool to help you locate text in data views.
Figure 2 Toolbar of Performance Analyzer
Navigation Panel
The vertical navigation panel on the left enables you to select various pages known as data views or simply views in Performance Analyzer. Most views show a perspective of the performance metrics for your profiled application. The views are related so that selections you make and filters you apply in one view are applied to other views.
Some buttons on the navigation panel open pages such as the Welcome page which makes the tool easier to use and find information, and the Overview page which provides information about the data in the open experiments.
You can add more views to the navigation panel by clicking the + button at the top of the navigation panel or the More Views button on the bottom of the navigation panel. You can also use the Views menu to select another view to add.
You can click the items in most data views to see more detailed information about the items in the Selection Details window, which is described in the next section Selection Details Window.
The data views are described in Performance Analyzer Views.
Selection Details Window
The Selection Details window on the right side shows all the recorded metrics for the selected item both as values and percentages, and information on the selected function or load object. The Selection Details window is updated whenever a new item is selected in any data view.
When you select a sample in the Samples bar of the Timeline view, the Selection Details window shows the sample number, the start and end time of the sample, and the microstates with the amount of time spent in each microstate and the color coding.
When you select an event in a data bar of the Timeline view, the Selection Details window shows the event details and the call stack.
Called-By/Calls Panel
The Called-by/Calls panel at the bottom of some data views enables you to navigate call paths. Select a function in the view and then use the Called-by/Calls panel to navigate to functions it was called by, or to function calls it makes. When you click a function in Called-by/Calls, the function is selected in the data view.