PROGRAMMABLE EVENT COUNTER SYSTEM

Certain events occurring throughout a microprocessor chip are monitored by a counter system (1) containing a number of digital electronic counters (3, 5, 7 & 9) consolidated at a single location on the processor chip. Those even ts are communicated to the counter system via electrical leads extending to those functional units in the processor responsible for signaling an event occurrence. Under program control, each counter can be selectively connected (11, 13, 15 & 17) to a selected one of the various functional event prod ucing units. By means of selection logic (19, 21, 23 & 25) separate events originating from multiple functional units may be logically combined, whereb y the event counted is a Boolean logic combination of multiple underlying even ts.