Inspect Manual

Using Inspect on a TNS/R System
Inspect Manual—429164-006
15-2
TNS/R Overview
TNS/R Overview
TNS/R computers support the HP NonStop operating system and existing applications,
but are based on reduced instruction set computing (RISC) technology. Inspect
supports the debugging of TNS, accelerated, and native TNS/R programs on TNS/R
systems.
Much of the code in HP-supplied software products for TNS/R systems has been
produced by TNS/R native compilers. You can also use native compilers to produce
your own native TNS/R code. (Refer to the C/C++ Programmer’s Guide, the COBOL
Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs, and the pTAL Reference Manual.) TNS/R
native code consists of RISC instructions that have been optimized to take advantage
of the RISC architecture. Program files containing such code are called native program
files.
RISC technology uses hardware and software components to increase program
performance. Hardware features which result in increased program performance
include the pipelining of instructions, which allows multiple instructions to be executed
in parallel, and an increased number of general purpose registers. Native TNS/R
programs require no additional optimizations to achieve optimum program
performance.
TNS programs, produced by TNS compilers rather than TNS/R native compilers, also
execute on TNS/R systems. TNS programs contain TNS object code. Program files
containing TNS object code are called TNS program files. (Even though TNS
processors are no longer supported, programs executed on TNS processors can
execute on TNS/R processors with very few exceptions. These exceptions are
described in the Accelerator Manual and the Guardian Application Conversion Guide.)
For some TNS program files, you can significantly improve performance by processing
them with the Axcel accelerator to make use of performance features of the RISC
instruction set. The accelerator processes a standard TNS object file and augments
that file by adding the equivalent RISC instructions. TNS object files that have been
optimized by the accelerator are called accelerated object files, or accelerated program
files if they include a main procedure. Running accelerated program files can
significantly improve performance over simply running TNS program files directly on
the TNS/R processor. The accelerator, however, provides optimization options that can
affect program debugging. For more information, see Section 16, Using Inspect With
Accelerated Programs on TNS/R Systems.
To make debugging easier than with most RISC-based systems, Inspect determines
the consistency of the program state, classifying synchronization points as either
memory-exact or register-exact points. These points give you information about your
program, such as whether memory and registers are up to date.
Executing Non-Accelerated Programs
You can execute TNS object files on a TNS/R machine without any change. Use of the
Axcel accelerator is only necessary when program performance is an issue.