Efficient Auction-Based Grid Reservation using Dynamic Programming

Abstract — Auction mechanisms have been proposed as a means to efficiently and fairly schedule jobs in high-performance computing environments. The Generalized Vickrey Auction has long been known to produce efficient allocations while exposing users to truth-revealing incentives, but the algorithms used to compute its payments can be computationally intractable. In this paper we present a novel implementation of the Generalized Vickrey Auction that uses dynamic programming to schedule jobs and compute payments in pseudo-polynomial time. Additionally, we have built a version of the PBS scheduler that uses this algorithm to schedule jobs, and in this paper we present the results of our tests using this scheduler. I

On the Future of Cloud Engineering

Ever since the commercial offerings of the Cloud started appearing in 2006, the landscape of cloud computing has been undergoing remarkable changes with the emergence of many different types of service offerings, developer productivity enhancement tools, and new application classes as well as the manifestation of cloud functionality closer to the user at the edge. The notion of utility computing, however, has remained constant throughout its evolution, which means that cloud users always seek to save costs of leasing cloud resources while maximizing their use. On the other hand, cloud providers try to maximize their profits while assuring service-level objectives of the cloud-hosted applications and keeping operational costs low. All these outcomes require systematic and sound cloud engineering principles. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of cloud engineering, survey the landscape of best practices in cloud engineering and its evolution, discuss many of the existing cloud engineering advances, and identify both the inherent technical challenges and research opportunities for the future of cloud computing in general and cloud engineering in particular

Phenotyping male infertility in the mouse: how to get the most out of a ‘non-performer’

BACKGROUND: Functional male gametes are produced through complex processes that take place within the testis, epididymis and female reproductive tract. A breakdown at any of these phases can result in male infertility. The production of mutant mouse models often yields an unexpected male infertility phenotype. It is with this in mind that the current review has been written. The review aims to act as a guide to the 'non-reproductive biologist' to facilitate a systematic analysis of sterile or subfertile mice and to assist in extracting the maximum amount of information from each model. METHODS: This is a review of the original literature on defects in the processes that take a mouse spermatogonial stem cell through to a fully functional spermatozoon, which result in male infertility. Based on literature searches and personal experience, we have outlined a step-by-step strategy for the analysis of an infertile male mouse line. RESULTS: A wide range of methods can be used to define the phenotype of an infertile male mouse. These methods range from histological methods such as electron microscopy and immunohistochemistry, to hormone analyses and methods to assess sperm maturation status and functional competence. CONCLUSION: With the increased rate of genetically modified mouse production, the generation of mouse models with unexpected male infertility is increasing. This manuscript will help to ensure that the maximum amount of information is obtained from each mouse model and, by extension, will facilitate the knowledge of both normal fertility processes and the causes of human infertility

Static Scheduling of Hierarchical Program Graphs

Many parallel compilationsystems represent programs internally as Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). However, the storage of these DAGs becomes prohibitive when the program being compiled is large. In this paper we describe a compile-time scheduling methodology for hierarchical DAG programs represented in the IFX intermediate form. The method we present is itself hierarchical reducing the storage that would otherwise be required by a single flat DAG representation. We describe the scheduling model and demonstrate the method using the Optimizing Sisal Compiler and two scientific applications. Keywords: Scheduling, Partitioning, Compilation, Dataflow 1. Introduction Effective program scheduling is critical to good execution performance on parallel machines. In this work, we investigate a compile-time methodology for scheduling parallel programs represented using the IFX intermediate form [10, 9]. Compile time scheduling methods are advantageous because they incur no runtime overhead, but ..

Forecasting Network Performance to Support Dynamic Scheduling Using the Network Weather Service

The Network Weather Service is a generalizable and extensible facility designed to provide dynamic resource performance forecasts in metacomputing environments. In this paper, we outline its design and detail the predictive performance of the forecasts it generates. While the forecasting methods are general, we focus on their ability to predict the TCP/IP end-to-end throughput and latency that is attainable by an application using systems located at different sites. Such network forecasts are needed both to support scheduling [5], and by the metacomputing software infrastructure to develop quality-of-service guarantees [10, 17]. Keywords: scheduling, metacomputing, quality-ofservice, statistical forecasting, network performance monitoring 1. Introduction As network technology advances, the resulting improvements in interprocess communication speeds make it possible to use interconnected but separate computer systems as a high-performance computational platform or metacomputer. Effect..

Dynamically Forecasting Network Performance Using the Network Weather Service

this paper, we outline its design and detail the predictive performance of the forecasts it generates. While the forecasting methods are general, we focus on their ability to predict the TCP/IP end-to-end throughput and latency that is attainable by an application using systems located at different sites. Such network forecasts are needed both to support scheduling [5], and by the metacomputing software infrastructure to develop quality-of-service guarantees [10, 17]. Keywords: scheduling, metacomputing, quality-of-service, statistical forecasting, network performance monitorin

Compiler Enforced Cache Coherence Using a Functional Language

The cost of hardware cache-coherence, both in terms of execution delay and operational cost, is substantial for scalable systems. Fortunately, compiler generated cache management can reduce program serialization due to cache-contention; increase execution performance; and reduce the cost of parallel systems by eliminating the need for more expensive hardware support. In this paper, we use the Sisal functional language system as a vehicle to implement and investigate automatic, compiler based cache management. We describe our implementation of Sisal for the IBM Power/4. The Power/4, briefly available as a product, represents an early attempt to build a shared-memory machine that relies strictly on the language system for cache-coherence. We discuss the issues associated with deterministic execution and program correctness on a system without hardware coherence, and demonstrate how Sisal (as a functional language) is able to address those issues. 1 Introduction The cost of hardware cach..