target.Timer Class

Namespace: target

Provide timer details for processor

Since R2020b

Description

Use the target.Timer class to provide timer details for your processor. For example, information about the C or C++ function interface and implementation, frequency, and timer count direction. To provide information about instrumenting C or C++ code for profiling, you can associate the timer details with a target.Processor object.

To create a target.Timer object, use the target.create function. Create the object and then use separate steps to specify properties. Or, using name-value arguments, create the object and specify properties in a single step.

Properties

Name — Timer name

character vector | string

Name of timer.

Attributes:

GetAccess	public
SetAccess	public

Direction — Count direction

'Up' | 'Down'

Direction of timer count.

Attributes:

GetAccess	public
SetAccess	public

APIImplementation — API implementation

target.APIImplementation object

Information about the API implementation, which is used to determine the current time.

If you use name-value arguments to create a target.Timer object, for the APIImplementation property, specify these arguments.

Name	Description
'FunctionName'	Required. Name property of target.Function object.
'FunctionReturnType'	Required. ReturnType property of target.Function object.
'IncludeFiles'	Required. IncludeFiles property of target.BuildDependencies object
'FunctionLanguage'	Optional. Language property of target.API object.
'SourceFiles'	Optional. SourceFiles property of target.BuildDependencies object.
'IncludePaths'	Optional. IncludePaths property of target.BuildDependencies object

Attributes:

GetAccess	public
SetAccess	public

Frequency — Frequency

scalar

Frequency of the unit returned by the timer function. This value can be used to convert timer function output to seconds. The helper class target.unit.Frequency contains some common frequency units.

Attributes:

GetAccess	public
SetAccess	public

Data Types: uint64

Examples

Create Timer Object

Create a timer object for your development computer.

Create the function signature for a timer. In this example, the function returns a uint64 data type and the function name timestamp_x86.

timerSignature = target.create('Function');
timerSignature.Name = 'timestamp_x86';
timerSignature.ReturnType = 'uint64';

Capture the function in an API object.

timerApi = target.create('API');
timerApi.Functions = timerSignature;
timerApi.Language = target.Language.C;
timerApi.Name = 'Linux Timer API';

Capture the dependencies of the function, that is, the source and header files that are required to run the function.

timerDependencies = target.create('BuildDependencies');
timerDependencies.IncludeFiles = {'host_timer_x86.h'};
timerDependencies.IncludePaths = ...
               {'$(MATLAB_ROOT)/toolbox/coder/profile/src'};
timerDependencies.SourceFiles = {'host_timer_x86.c'};

Create an object that combines the API and dependencies.

timerImplementation = target.create('APIImplementation');
timerImplementation.API = timerApi;
timerImplementation.BuildDependencies = timerDependencies;
timerImplementation.Name = 'Linux Timer Implementation';

Create the timer object and associate it with the timer information.

timer = target.create('Timer');
timer.APIImplementation = timerImplementation;
timer.Name = 'Linux Timer';

Note

Using name-value arguments, you can create the timer object with this command.

 timer = target.create('Timer', 'Name', 'Linux Timer', ...
           'FunctionName', 'timestamp_x86', ...
           'FunctionReturnType', 'uint64', ...
           'FunctionLanguage', target.Language.C, ...
           'SourceFiles', {'host_timer_x86.c'}, ...
           'IncludeFiles', {'host_timer_x86.h'}, ...
           'IncludePaths', {'$(MATLAB_ROOT)/toolbox/coder/profile/src'})

Assign the timer and add-ons to the processor object.

processor = target.get('Processor', 'Intel-x86-64 (Linux 64)');
processor.Timers = timer;

Create Timer Object by Modifying Existing Object

You can create a new timer object by copying an existing timer object and modifying specific property values of the copy.

newTimer = target.create('Timer', ...
                         'Copy', 'Linux Timer', ...
                         'Name', 'NewTimerName', ...
                         'FunctionName', 'newFunctioName');

Version History

Introduced in R2020b