Analyzing kernel activity with the System Profiler

Updated: April 19, 2023

The System Profiler tool lets you view kernel event data gathered from a target. This tool displays graphs and tables that reveal kernel activity from all processes, down to the level of system calls and interrupts, over a fixed time period.

An application might run well, be very responsive, and be free of serious errors when executed in isolation but exhibit issues when introduced into a production environment. You must ensure that it performs and behaves well when running on your embedded system, which most likely contains many different applications and services. Kernel event tracing captures key system events that reveal how processes and threads interact with each other and can highlight performance bottlenecks and bad situations such as deadlock and improper signal handling.

The IDE automates starting kernel event traces and receiving, storing, and viewing the captured data. Through the System Profiler editor panes, you can extract specific data for different analysis use cases.