The SET CPU_SAMPLING command causes PCA to collect PC values in the same way that SET PC_SAMPLING does, with one important exception. The CPU sampling interval is based on virtual process or CPU time, not system time. When you issue the SET CPU_SAMPLING command, PCA will only collect PC values whenever there has been one or more clock ticks on the process's clock. There are many external factors that can affect the behavior of a program, in relation to the system (or wall) clock. For example, page faulting and system service wait time (including I/O wait time). These conditions make it difficult to determine whether the program counter contains a specific location because of the structure of the program's algorithm or because of other operations occuring in that interval. Under these conditions, sampling the PC values based on the process's CPU time would be more effective and reproducible, because the effects caused by contending processes are reduced. You must collect stack PC information if you want to use a /MAIN_ IMAGE, /CUMULATIVE or /STACK_DEPTH qualifier with the PLOT or TAB command in the Analyzer.