News
Intelligraphics Unveils the New IntelliBench Display Driver Workbench
June 13, 2000
Support for 3D, including DirectX 3.0 and DirectX 5.0 and the addition of Direct Draw, is one of the many new features added to this year's IntelliBench. Now driver developers can analyze, debug and optimize their own, as well as assess their competitor's, DirectX software by isolating and measuring each DirectX function, including individual primitives.
The IntelliBench Display Driver Workbench is a combination of a set of thin, system-level shells (driver, DIB Engine, and 32-bit DirectX) and a powerful application with an intuitive, easy-to use GUI interface. With these shells in place, developers can selectively manipulate calls into the display driver, DIB Engine, graphics engine (GDI), and hardware giving the developer function-level control over display and graphics operations. The driver shell is installed between the graphics engine and the display driver and intercepts calls going into the driver. With the DIB Engine shell in place, developers can compare their code with the performance of the DIB Engine. Users can also see how much time is spent on each DIB Engine function. The 32-bit DirectX shell is installed between the DirectX runtime and the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), allowing the manipulation and analysis of 3D functions.
IntelliBench has proven invaluable for benchmark tuning, competitive analysis, debugging, training and driver optimization. When run with enchmarks such as Ziff Davis' WinBench 98, IntelliBench reveals the contribution of each individual function to the overall benchmark score. Since IntelliBench does not require source code for analysis and profiling, companies can analyze competitor's hardware and driver software, quickly determining which features contribute to a competitor's improved scores. In addition, the IntelliBench Workbench is an invaluable set of learning and debugging tools for those developers who want to gain a detailed understanding of driver internals. By using the call intercepts and new breakpoint features in the IntelliBench Workbench, developers can easily isolate those functions that are the cause of errors.
Unlike any commercially available driver analysis tool, the IntelliBench Workbench allows developers to define, on a per function basis, how each graphics operation is routed and executed, both for 2D and 3D operations. The IntelliBench Workbench has four routing options. The NORMAL option passes the function call through normally without re-routing, allowing traditional driver operation. The FAKE setting eliminates the function call while returning an "OK" response to the graphics engine (either GDI or DirectX runtime). By performing this task, the IntelliBench Workbench essentially executes the call with infinite speed, isolating and illustrating the overall performance effect of a single function. The FAIL option eliminates the function call while returning a "Fail" response. This action causes the GDI or the DirectX runtime to simulate the output by issuing calls to simpler routines. Finally, the PUNT setting passes the call on to the DIB Engine (2D) or to DirectDraw (3D). This option will allow developers to compare the performance of the device driver and hardware with that of software operation.
The IntelliBench DDW allows developers analyze one important DirectX callback function, RenderPrimitive, in unparalleled detail by breaking down driver performance on an individual primitive basis. IntelliBench allows the developer to "FAKE" or "FAIL" an individual primitive (various types of triangles, lines, and points) and measure that primitive's individual performance impact. Using this approach, a company can quickly gather timing, sizing, and frequency information and determine how efficiently a competitor is handling primitives. The IntelliBench Workbench also allows a frame-by-frame analysis of the driver operation and primitive measurement.
In addition to an improved user-friendly GUI interface, theIntelliBench Workbench will allow developers to activate an automated profiling function and gather data overnight or while the developer is performing other tasks.
The IntelliBench Workbench offers the most comprehensive data output options available. Developers can get detailed, user-selectable profiling output of information pertaining to each call to the driver, including execution time, frequency of function calls, call order, return value, and parameter values. With the IntelliBench Workbench, users can also get virtually instant data charts on call frequency and call timing with the IntelliBench DDW's new QuickTune and QuickProfile features.
The IntelliBench Workbench also provides timing data for both software and hardware timing. Individual driver functions can be selectively timed, accurate to a single Pentium clock cycles, providing developers with key performance information. QuickProfile gives users a summary data table that details the amount of time each function call takes to execute and the frequency of each call. This feature allows immediate developer feedback without the need to output and format the data. Hardware operations can also be timed, revealing those areas of the driver that are bound by hardware performance. Armed with this information, developers can easily identify those driver functions that can be improved.
QuickTune is a powerful tool for quickly and efficiently tuning driver performance. This IntelliBench Workbench feature works like a software microscope, allowing users to selectively analyze the timing of a single function in great detail and with great accuracy. When a particular function call is selected, QuickTune repeatedly executes that function and immediately returns an average time for that call. So, as developers tune the performance of a function, QuickTune reveals even small fractional improvements in performance.
Another new feature in the IntelliBench Workbench is the ability to analyze both GDI and DIB Engine functions. In addition to offering insight into the display driver, the IntelliBench Workbench gives developers insight into the operation of the graphics engine and the DIB Engine. So, users can profile and time GDI and DIB Engine functions, view the order of calls, and see the parameter values within each call.
The IntelliBench Workbench can output data in a number of ways. Users can get immediate data on function call frequency and call timing through the new QuickProfile and QuickTune features. These tools give quick summary information on driver operations. For more thorough information, the IntelliBench Workbench will gather data and export it to a COM port, a text file, or to a Microsoft Access database. Within Access, IntelliBench provides a number of pre-defined queries in addition to Access's powerful graphing and analysis features. These queries target specific data and comparisons that are important to driver developers. Importantly, the IntelliBench Workbench can gather this data while maintaining a low profile. While running, IntelliBench has a negligible effect on driver performance. As a result, the IntelliBench Workbench is practically invisible while it is being used to analyze the hardware and driver performance.
IntelliBench Display Driver Development Features
- An integrated suite of tools for 2D and 3D display drivers
- Development, debugging and performance analysis tools
- Supports Windows 95, Windows 98, DirectDraw, DirectX 3.0 and DirectX 5.0
- Intuitive, easy-to-use GUI interface
- Function-level control of driver operations
- Detailed analysis of driver, hardware, graphics engine (GDI) and DIB Engine functions
- User-selected routing of function calls
- Detailed, user-selectable profiling output
- Valuable profiling data, including:
- Function Call Frequency
- Call Timing
- Return Values
- Call Ordering
- Parameter Values
- Immediate call timing and frequency data with QuickProfile
- Detailed performance tuning analysis with QuickTune
- Detailed measurement of 3D primitives
- Selective timing of functions
- Runs in conjunction with existing benchmark software
- Allows in-depth analysis of benchmark standards
- Valuable competitive analysis tool
- Extensive learning tool for driver development
- Simplifies isolation of hard-to-find bugs
- Breakpoint debugging tool
- Multiple data output options
- Com Port
- Text File
- Microsoft Access database
- Numerous pre-defined Access queries for easy data analysis
- Automated profiling and operation
- Extensive help section including detailed application notes
- Extremely low profile
- Gather extensive, detailed driver data in hours
- Quickly capture hard-to-get information
