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heliaPROFILER
Getting started
HELIA

Getting started

heliaPROFILER (hpx) builds profiling firmware, runs your model on an Ambiq board and saves the measurements. Start here to capture your first result, understand its timing and memory use, and save a configuration for the next run.

You need a supported host, an Ambiq board and a J-Link connection. Power measurement is optional and requires a supported instrument.

Your first profile

Section titled “Your first profile”

Follow these steps in order, or jump to setup validation if your tools are already installed.

1. Install

Put hpx, the Arm GNU toolchain, CMake, Ninja and the SEGGER J-Link software on your machine, with one path per operating system.

2. Hardware prerequisites

What to plug in: the board, its debug USB port, the probe hpx will use, and the instruments you need only for power.

3. Validate your setup

Check the tools and connection before running a hardware smoke test: doctor, boards, probes, ports and validate.

4. First profile

One command, one model, one board. Then the result bundle, clean timing, layer costs and memory use.

5. Configure a run

Move the flags into a YAML file you can check in, and learn how the file and the command line merge.

6. Next steps

Pick the User guide page, the example or the reference that matches what you want to measure.

What a run does

Section titled “What a run does”

Every hpx profile invocation is the same sequence of blocks. The diagram below is the shape to keep in mind while you read the rest of the section; the Concepts pages open each block up.

One profile, six blocksConfigure, analyse, build, flash, capture, report. Power capture is an optional block beside capture.
  1. ConfigureYAML and flags
  2. Analysemodel and memory
  3. Buildfirmware
  4. FlashJ-Link
  5. CapturePMU, power
  6. Reportresult bundle
Text description of the diagram
  • Configure: YAML and flags
  • Analyse: model and memory
  • Build: firmware
  • Flash: J-Link
  • Capture: PMU, power
  • Report: result bundle

Expected output

Section titled “Expected output”

At the end of step 4 you have a results/ directory holding result_manifest.json, summary.json, profile_results.csv, run_metadata.json and nsx.lock, and a per-layer table you can open in a spreadsheet. Step 5 leaves you with an hpx.yml that reproduces that run from one command.

What next

Section titled “What next”

Start with Install. If your tools are already in place, jump to Validate your setup and let hpx doctor tell you whether that is true.