Performance Debugging and Tuning using an Instruction-Set Simulator

Instruction-set simulators allow programmers a detailed level of insight into, and control over, the execution of a program, including parallel programs and operating systems. In principle, instruction set simulation can model any target computer and gather any statistic. Furthermore, such simulators are usually portable, independent of compiler tools, and deterministic-allowing bugs to be recreated or measurements repeated. Though often viewed as being too slow for use as a general programming tool, in the last several years their performance has improved considerably. We describe SIMICS, an instruction set simulator of SPARC-based multiprocessors developed at SICS, in its rôle as a general programming tool. We discuss some of the benefits of using a tool such as SIMICS to support various tasks in software engineering, including debugging, testing, analysis, and performance tuning. We present in some detail two test cases, where we've used SimICS to support analysis and performance tuning of two applications, Penny and EQNTOTT. This work resulted in improved parallelism in, and understanding of, Penny, as well as a performance improvement for EQNTOTT of over a magnitude. We also present some early work on analyzing SPARC/Linux, demonstrating the ability of tools like SimICS to analyze operating systems

The Nordic Expert Group for Criteria Documentation of Health Risks from Chemicals : 128. Triglycidyl isocyanurate

Triglycidyl isocyanurate (TGIC) is a solid, slightly soluble in water. It has a very low vapour pressure, and will therefore occur as dust at the workplace. TGIC is an epoxy compound containing three epoxy groups. Technical TGIC is a mixture of the a : and ß-isomer. TGIC is often used as a hardener. The main use is in the manufacture of polyester powder coatings for metal finishing. The powder coatings usually contain between 4 and 10% TGIC. There is little information found with respect to the toxicokinetics of TGIC. However, some data on a -TGIC indicate that TGIC is rapidly and extensively metabolised. TGIC may cause allergic contact dermatitis in humans. Several cases have been reported subsequent to occupational exposure. However, the contact sensitising potential of TGIC remains to be established. TGIC has been shown to be mutagenic/genotoxic in vitro. Furthermore, there are data that demonstrate a genotoxic potential of TGIC in vivo. A reduction in male fertility and a dose-related decrease in the number of spermatozoa has also been reported in animals. Experimental animal studies indicate that TGIC instilled into the eyes may cause severe eye damage. The major concerns for human health are contact allergy, mutagenicity/genotoxicity and reproductive toxicity. At the present state of knowledge it is not possible to identify a dose or exposure level at which these adverse effects do not occur.Triglycidylisocyanurat (TGIC) är ett fast ämne, något lösligt i vatten. Det har mycket lågt ångtryck och förekommer därför som damm i arbetsmiljön. TGIC är en epoxiförening och innehåller tre epoxigrupper. Tekniskt TGIC är en blandning av a : och ß-isomeren. TGIC används ofta som härdare, framför allt vid tillverkning av pulverlacker av polyestertyp avsedda för ytbehandling av metall. Pulverlackerna innehåller vanligen mellan 4 och 10% TGIC. Informationen om upptag och omsättning av TGIC är sparsam, men data gällande a -TGIC antyder att metabolismen av TGIC är snabb och omfattande. TGIC kan förorsaka allergiskt kontakteksem hos människa. Åtskilliga fall har rapporterats i samband med yrkesmässig exponering, men ämnets kontaktsensibiliserande potential återstår att fastställa. TGIC har visats vara mutagent/genotoxiskt in vitro. Andra data visar att TGIC är genotoxiskt in vivo. Minskad fertilitet och en dos-relaterad minskning av antalet spermier har också rapporterats hos handjur. Djurexperimentella studier indikerar att TGIC kan förorsaka svåra ögonskador vid instillation i ögat. De toxiska effekter som framför allt inger oro vid yrkesmässig exponering för TGIC är kontaktallergi, mutagenicitet/genotoxicitet och reproduktionstoxicitet. Med dagens kunskap är det inte möjligt att identifiera en dos eller exponeringsnivå vid vilken dessa effekter inte uppträder. Nyckelord: Allergiskt kontakteksem, genotoxicitet, gränsvärden, mutagenicitet, pulverlacker, reproduktionstoxicitet, riskbedömning, TGIC, toxicitet, triglycidylisocyanurat, ögonskad

Exploiting Fine-grain Parallelism in Concurrent Constraint Languages

This dissertation presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a system that exploits fine-grain implicit parallelism in concurrent constraint programming language. The system is able to outperform a C implementation of an algorithm with complex dependencies without any user annotations. The concurrent constraint programming language AKL is used as a source programming language. A program is divided during runtime into tasks that are distributed over available processors. The system is unique in that it handles both and-parallel execution of goals as well as or-parallel execution of encapsulated search. A parallel binding scheme for a hierarchical constraint store is presented. The binding scheme allows encapsulated search to be performed in parallel. The design is justified with empirical data from the implementation. The scheme is the most efficient parallel scheme yet presented for deep concurrent constraint systems. The system was implemented on a high-performance shared-memory multiprocessor. Extensive measurements were done on the system using both smaller benchmarks as well as real-life programs. The evaluation includes detailed instruction-level simulation, including cache-performance, to explain the behavior of the system

Exploiting Fine-grain Parallelism in Concurrent Constraint Languages

This dissertation presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a system that exploits fine-grain implicit parallelism in concurrent constraint programming language. The system is able to outperform a C implementation of an algorithm with complex dependencies without any user annotations. The concurrent constraint programming language AKL is used as a source programming language. A program is divided during runtime into tasks that are distributed over available processors. The system is unique in that it handles both and-parallel execution of goals as well as or-parallel execution of encapsulated search. A parallel binding scheme for a hierarchical constraint store is presented. The binding scheme allows encapsulated search to be performed in parallel. The design is justified with empirical data from the implementation. The scheme is the most efficient parallel scheme yet presented for deep concurrent constraint systems. The system was implemented on a high-performance shared-memory multiprocessor. Extensive measurements were done on the system using both smaller benchmarks as well as real-life programs. The evaluation includes detailed instruction-level simulation, including cache-performance, to explain the behavior of the system

An Evaluation

Contents 1 The experimental setting 1 1.1 Binaries : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1 1.2 Timings : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 1 1.3 The hardware : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 2 1.4 Speedup : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 2 2 Simple recursion 3 2.1 Speedup : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 4 2.2 Cache performance : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 6 2.3 Load's up : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 7 3 The limitations of sequential task creation 8 3.1 The task size : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 9 3.2 Analysis of initial speedup : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :

Vetenskapligt underlag för Hygieniska Gränsvärden 29

Montelius J (ed). Vetenskapligt underlag för hygieniska gränsvärden. 29. Arbete och Hälsa 2009;43(1):1-73. Göteborgs Universitet. Sammanställningar baserade på kritisk genomgång och värdering av de vetenskapliga fakta, vilka är relevanta som underlag för fastställande av hygieniskt gränsvärde. Volymen omfattar de underlag som avgivits från Kriteriegruppen för hygieniska gränsvärden under perioden oktober 2007 – juni 2008.An English version "Scientific Basis for Swedish Occupational Standards XXIX" will be published in Arbete och Hälsa 2009

Vetenskapligt Underlag för Hygienska Gränsvärden 32.

Montelius J (ed). Vetenskapligt underlag för hygieniska gränsvärden. 32. Arbete och Hälsa 2012;46(6),1-81. Göteborgs Universitet. Sammanställningar baserade på kritisk genomgång och värdering av de veten-skapliga fakta, vilka är relevanta som underlag för fastställande av hygieniskt gränsvärde. Volymen omfattar de underlag som avgivits från Kriteriegruppen för hygieniska gränsvärden vid Arbetsmiljöverket under perioden oktober 2010 till och med maj 2012

Vetenskapligt Underlag för Hygieniska Gränsvärden 30

Critical review and evaluation of those scientific data which are relevant as a background for discussion of Swedish occupational exposure limits. This volume consists of the consensus reports given by the Criteria Group at the Swedish Work Environment Authority from July, 2008 through June, 2009. Key Words: Grain dust, Hydrochloric acid, Molybdenum, Molybdenum compounds, Nitric acid, Occupational exposure limit (OEL), Phosphoric acid, Risk assessment, Scientific basis, Styrene, Sulfuric acid, Toxicology