6.9   The Spy Window

Pressing the spy button produces a window similar to Figure 6-19. This spy window reports on CPU utilization for each task on your target, as a percentage of CPU cycles. Besides tasks, the spy window always includes the following additional categories for CPU-cycle usage: time spent in the kernel, time spent in interrupt handlers, and idle time. These additional categories appear below all task data; you may need to use the scrollbar to see them.

Spy data is reported in one of two modes (selected with the browser config form shown in Figure 6-2). Reports in Cumulative mode (noted on the state indicator line) show total CPU usage since you first display the spy window. Reports in Differential mode reflect only the CPU usage since the last update. The spy mode for the window is also noted in the title line: in cumulative mode, the title bar reads spy (total time), while in differential mode it reads spy (delta time).

The spy window uses the facilities of the VxWorks target software in spyLib (which is automatically downloaded to the target when you request a spy window, if it is not already present there). For related information, see the reference entries for spyLib.