Intel® VTune™ Amplifier XE is a Performance profiler targeted for analysis of applications running on local Windows*/Linux*/OS X* and remote Linux* target systems. Use this tool to analyze the algorithm choices, find serial and parallel code bottlenecks, understand where and how your application can benefit from available hardware resources, and speed up the execution.

VTune Amplifier XE is available as a standalone product as well as part of the following suites:

Prerequisites

For system requirements, see the product Release Notes.

Step 1: Start the VTune Amplifier

  1. Set up the environment variables:

    • csh/tcsh users: source <install_dir>/amplxe-vars.csh

    • bash users: source <install_dir>/amplxe-vars.sh

    By default, the <install_dir> is:

    • For root users: /opt/intel/vtune_amplifier_xe_2016

    • For non-root users: $HOME/intel/vtune_amplifier_xe_2016

  2. Launch the VTune Amplifier:

    • For standalone GUI interface, run the amplxe-gui command.

    • For command line interface, run the amplxe-cl command.

Step 2: Set Up the Analysis Target

  1. Build your target application in the Release mode with all optimizations enabled.

  2. Create a VTune Amplifier project:

    1. Click the menu button in the right corner and go to New > Project... .

    2. Specify the project name and location in the Create Project dialog box.

  3. In the Analysis Target tab, select a target system from the left pane and select an analysis target type from the right pane.

  4. Configure your target: application location, parameters, and search directories (if required).

Step 3: Configure Analysis

  1. Switch to the Analysis Type tab.

  2. From the left pane, select an analysis type applicable to your platform and configure analysis options in the right pane.

  3. Click the Start button on the right to launch the analysis.

Step 4: View and Analyze Performance Data

When data collection completes, the VTune Amplifier opens the result in the default viewpoint, which is a preset configuration of windows for an analysis result. You may switch between different viewpoint to analyze the data from different perspectives using different sets of performance metrics.

Start your analysis with the Summary window to get an overview of the application performance and then switch to other windows to explore the performance deeper at the granularity of function, source line and so on.

Key Features

ALGORITHM ANALYSIS

HARDWARE EVENT-BASED SAMPLING ANALYSIS

  • Use the algorithm Advanced Hotspots analysis to extend Basic Hotspots analysis by collecting call stacks, context switches and analyze CPI (Cycles Per Instructions) metric.

    See the tutorial for a C++ sample code running on Intel Xeon Phi™ coprocessor.

  • Run General Exploration analysis to triage hardware issues in your application. This type collects a complete list of events for analyzing a typical client application.

    See the tutorial for a C++ sample code.

  • Narrow down your hardware analysis by focusing on specific hardware issues, such as ineffective memory accesses, low bandwidth, and so on. VTune Amplifier analyzes your code, identifies issues and provides recommendations.

SOURCE ANALYSIS

GPU ANALYSIS

  • Double click a hotspot function to drill down to the source code and analyze performance per source line or assembler instruction.

  • For help on an assembly instruction, right-click the instruction in the Assembly pane and select Instruction Reference from the context menu.

  • Run CPU/GPU Concurrency analysis to identify code regions where your application is CPU or GPU bound.

  • For GPU-bound applications running on Intel HD Graphics, collect GPU hardware events to estimate how effectively the Processor Graphics are used.

  • Analyze hot Intel® Media SDK programs and OpenCL™ kernels running on a GPU.

CUSTOM ANALYSIS

OpenMP* ANALYSIS

  • Select Custom Analysis branch in the analysis tree to create your own analysis configurations using any of the available VTune Amplifier data collectors.

  • Run your own custom collector from the VTune Amplifier to get the aggregated performance data, from your custom collection and VTune Amplifier analysis, in the same result.

  • Import performance data collected by your own or third-party collector into the VTune Amplifier result collected in parallel with your external collection. Use the Import from CSV button to integrate the external data to the *.amplxe result.

  • Start with the OpenMP Analysis section of the Summary window to identify inefficiencies in parallelization of your OpenMP application.

  • Analyze the Potential Gain metric values per OpenMP region to understand the maximum time that could be saved if the OpenMP region is optimized to have no load imbalance assuming no runtime overhead.

  • For hybrid OpenMP and MPI applications, explore OpenMP efficiency metrics by MPI processes laying on the critical path.

For the detailed list of product features, see Intel VTune Amplifier Help.

Documentation and Resources

Document

Description

Intel VTune Amplifier Tutorials

Tutorials show you how to use basic VTune Amplifier features. VTune Amplifier tutorials guide a new user through basic walkthrough operations with a short sample. The tutorials provide an excellent foundation before you read the VTune Amplifier help.

The default installation location for the VTune Amplifier tutorials is <install-dir>/documentation/<locale>/tutorials.

Sample code is typically installed to <install-dir>/samples/<locale>/<programming_language>.

Release Notes

The Release Notes document contains the most up-to-date information about the product, including a product description, technical support, and known limitations and issues.

This document also contains system requirements for installing the product. Before installation, the Release Notes document is located at the root level (same level as the installation script/executable) of the installation download package.

This document is installed at: <install-dir>/documentation/<locale>/release_notes_amplifier_linux.pdf

Installation Guide

The Installation Guide contains basic installation instructions for VTune Amplifier and post-installation configuration instructions for the various drivers and collectors.

The latest Installation Guide can be found on the Intel Developer Zone website.

Intel VTune Amplifier Help

The help is the primary documentation for the VTune Amplifier. To view VTune Amplifier help, do the following:

  • From the product interface: Choose Intel VTune Amplifier XE 2016 Help from the Help menu, or click the Help button on the toolbar.
  • Outside the product interface: Open the index.htm file, which is installed at <install-dir>/documentation/<locale>/help.

Intel Processor Event Reference

This help provides reference information for Intel processor events used by the VTune Amplifier for hardware event-based sampling analysis. Most of this information is drawn from Intel processor information sources on the web. To access the Event Reference, choose Intel Processor Event Reference from the Help menu, or click the Help icon on the toolbar.

Command line help

You can access general help for VTune Amplifier command line interface by entering the following command line:

  • amplxe-cl -help for help on basic action options

  • amplxe-cl -help <action-option> for help on a particular action option and its knobs

Web Resources

Legal Information

Intel, VTune and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are trademarks, or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Copyright © 2015, Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.