CE debugging very slow with HyperThread host

I have a host pc that I am using for my PB development. (5.0)
I find that if I enable HT in the BIOS, my debug process is very slow. If I
disable HT in the BIOS, it seems to be normal speed.

Is this expected? I would prefer to leave the HT on as it helps to enhance
my overall development experiece.

Thanks,
Chuck

Steve
Thu May 26 17:39:52 CDT 2005

What OS are you running? I have an HT P4 running XP + SP2 and debugging runs
fine.

--
Steve Maillet
EmbeddedFusion
www.EmbeddedFusion.com
smaillet at EmbeddedFusion dot com

chuckl
Fri May 27 09:30:12 CDT 2005

I'm running the same OS (XP+SP2). My CPU is Xeon, 3.4 G

Chuck

"Steve Maillet (eMVP)" wrote:

> What OS are you running? I have an HT P4 running XP + SP2 and debugging runs
> fine.
>
> --
> Steve Maillet
> EmbeddedFusion
> www.EmbeddedFusion.com
> smaillet at EmbeddedFusion dot com
>
>
>

Steve
Fri May 27 12:15:52 CDT 2005

Can you quantify "slower" in this context then?

--
Steve Maillet
EmbeddedFusion
www.EmbeddedFusion.com
smaillet at EmbeddedFusion dot com

chuckl
Fri May 27 16:04:09 CDT 2005

My symptom is that with HT enabled in BIOS, when debugging code on my target,
executing a single step in the source takes 10-12 seconds to occur.

With HT disabled in BIOS (the only change made to the debug environment0 the
debug single-step takes <1 s.

I have verified that this is indeed the only change in the debug environment
by rebooting into BIOS, making the HT enable/disable change, then launching
into my debug session and performing the test. Repeating the same exercise
by rebooting, making the HT change in BIOS, returning to debug, shows that
the debug effect is present.

Chuck

"Steve Maillet (eMVP)" wrote:

> Can you quantify "slower" in this context then?
>
> --
> Steve Maillet
> EmbeddedFusion
> www.EmbeddedFusion.com
> smaillet at EmbeddedFusion dot com
>
>
>

Steve
Fri May 27 16:10:36 CDT 2005

Are you using the multiprocessor HAL in XP? E.g. does XP report 2 CPUs?

--
Steve Maillet
EmbeddedFusion
www.EmbeddedFusion.com
smaillet at EmbeddedFusion dot com

Andriy
Sun May 29 08:14:28 CDT 2005

I had the same problem under Windows 2000 / Pentium4 some time ago.

Because hyperthreading is not recommended under w2k I change HAL from
multiprocessor to uniprocessor and disable hyperthreading in BIOS and
debugging speed become good.

If I recall correctly, not only Platform Builder was affected, but also
Visual Studio 6.0 (I not tried with newer versions)


--
Best regards,
Andriy Hyba

chuckl
Tue May 31 09:01:04 CDT 2005

I'm not sure how best to determine if the HAL reports multiple processors. I
do know that when HT is enabled, Task Manager reports only 50% CPU burden
when I have the CPU fully occupied with a process. This changes when I have
HT disabled via the BIOS, the Task Manager then reports 100% burden.

I suspect that this is nothing I'm doing wrong, but I am puzzled as to why
there aren't more posts on the subject if indeed it is a problem with the
toolset.

Chuck

"Steve Maillet (eMVP)" wrote:

> Are you using the multiprocessor HAL in XP? E.g. does XP report 2 CPUs?
>
> --
> Steve Maillet
> EmbeddedFusion
> www.EmbeddedFusion.com
> smaillet at EmbeddedFusion dot com
>
>
>

chuckl
Tue May 31 09:02:07 CDT 2005

I also see this problem with embedded Visual C++ 4.0
Chuck

"Andriy Hyba" wrote:

> I had the same problem under Windows 2000 / Pentium4 some time ago.
>
> Because hyperthreading is not recommended under w2k I change HAL from
> multiprocessor to uniprocessor and disable hyperthreading in BIOS and
> debugging speed become good.
>
> If I recall correctly, not only Platform Builder was affected, but also
> Visual Studio 6.0 (I not tried with newer versions)
>
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Andriy Hyba
>
>
>