Characterisation survey

The performance of a computer system is affected by the characteristics of its various hardware and software subsystems. Hardware and software characterisation give the ability to change machine and programs parameters and observe their effects on the performance of the system without changing the existing hardware which can be time consuming and cost prohibitive. This report provides a survey of the techniques and tools used in the hardware and software characterisation of parallel systems

Characterisation based bottleneck analysis of parallel systems

Bottleneck analysis plays an important role in the early design of parallel computers and programs. In this paper a methodology for bottleneck analysis based on an instruction level characterisation technique is presented. The methodology is based on the assumption that a bottleneck is cauused by the slowest component of a computing system. These components are: memory (internal, external), processor (ALU, FPU), communication and I/O. Three metrics were used to identify bottlenecks in the system components. These are the B-ration, the communications-computation ratio and the memory-processing ratio. These ratios are dimensionless with values greater than unity indicates the presence of a bottleneck. The methodology is illustrated and validated using a communication intensive linear solver algorithm (Gauss-Jordan elimination) which was implemented on a mesh connected distributed memory parallel computer (128 T800 Parystec SuperCluster)

Characterising computational kernels : a case study

We describe the characterisation of an application kernel on a parallel system of two processors. The application kernel is a one-dimensional Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the processors used are two T800 transputers. Analytical expressions for the "execution time" for a single and two processors are discussed and used to obtain the performance measure

Smart integration : a test case study

This study is concerned with characterisation of a parallel algorithm, namely partial 1D FFT on a parallel system (2 x T800). Analytical expressions for the "execution time" for a single processor and 2 processors are discussed and used to obtain a performance measure (execution time) for the application at hand

A layered approach to modelling parallel systems for performance prediction

Conventional modelling techniques rely on workload parameters obtained from an existing system and the development of a system model. For software under development this is a hindering factor for performance evaluation and the performance prediction. Software Performance Engineering (SPE) offers a solution to this problem by using a software execution model, in addition to the system model. The use of SPE for parallel software has several disadvantages: complex nature of the SPE system model, non re-usable model components, and lack of analytical methods to evaluate the system model. A novel layered approach is presented here, using separate hardware, parallel paradigm, and application layers to overcome these disadvantages. The layered approach is illustrated, and results obtained, using an image processing benchmark

An Environment for the Design and Performance Evaluation of Portable Parallel Software - Literature Review (2)

ion language is used MP = Mapping An = Animation MO = Monitoring AN = Analytical modelling MPI = MPI library C = C Language PP = Parallel Profiling CG = Code Generation PVM = PVM library D = Dynamic S = Static DB = Debugging code or through animation SI = Simulation F = F77 Language St = Statistics GD = Graphical Design ST = Separate tools IE = Integrated Environment T/E = Tool/Environment Name LB = Load Balancing Vis = Visualisation Lang Comm Model MO AB Vis GD CG DB IE ST MP LB PP T/E N C F PVM MPI AN SI St An D S AIMS X X X X X X X X X X ALPSTONE X X X X X X X X ANNAI X X X X X X X X X X X X X CAMAS X X X X X X X X X X CAPSE X X X X X X X X X X Carnival X X X X X X Dip X X X X X X X X X X X GRADE X X X X X X X X X X X X X X Hamlet X X X X X X X X X HeNCE X X X X X X X X X X MAD X X X X X X X X X X Mermaid X X X X X X X X X X X MPSS X X X X X X X X PADE X X X X X X X X PARADE X X X X X X X X X X Paradyn X X X X X X X PEPS X X X X X X X X X X X Ptolemy X X X X X X X ..

EDPEPPS: An Environment for the Design and Performance Evaluation of Portable Parallel Software

. This paper describes an environment for performance-oriented design of portable parallel software. The environment consists of a graphical design tool based on the PVM communication library for building parallel algorithms, a state-of-the-art simulation engine and a visualisation tool for animation of program execution and visualisation of platform and network performance measures and statistics. The toolset is used to model a virtual machine composed of a cluster of workstations interconnected by a local area network. The simulation model used is modular and its components are interchangeable which allows easy re-configuration of the platform. The model is validated using experiments on the COMMS1 benchmark from the Parkbench suite, and a standard image processing algorithm with maximum errors of 1% and 10% respectively. 1 Introduction A major obstacle to the widespread adoption of parallel computing in industry is the difficulty in program development due mainly to lack of parall..