Win32 threads synchronization/performance monitoring tools

Question

would Intel(R) VTune(TM) Thread profiler be able to tell if threads synchronization was successful? I'm never profiled any application, where do i start?

Answer 1

What exactly are you trying to profile or measure?

If you are trying to protect a critical resource from being accessed by 2 or more threads at the same time, then use a synchronization primitive such as a mutex/critical section/slim reader-writer locks and surround the writes to the critical resource with these primitives.

If you are trying to figure out if there is any lock contention, then I believe the profilers out there will surely be able to help you out. I've never used the Intrl profiler myself, so I can't say how well it works. The new tools in VS2010 (http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/VS2010ppa) are a great way to figure out the problems in your code if your project is VS based.

I can probably help out a little more if you provide more details.