TY - GEN
T1 - Approach to scalability study of shared memory parallel systems
AU - Sivasubramaniam, Anand
AU - Singla, Aman
AU - Ramachandran, Umakishore
AU - Venkateswaran, H.
PY - 1994
Y1 - 1994
N2 - The overheads in a parallel system that limit its scalability need to be identified and separated in order to enable parallel algorithm design and the development of parallel machines. Such overheads may be broadly classified into two components. The first one is intrinsic to the algorithm and arises due to factors such as the work-imbalance and the serial fraction. The second one is due to the interaction between the algorithm and the architecture and arises due to latency and contention in the network. A top-down approach to scalability study of shared memory parallel systems is proposed in this research. We define the notion of overhead functions associated with the different algorithmic and architectural characteristics to quantify the scalability of parallel systems; we isolate the algorithmic overhead and the overheads due to network latency and contention from the overall execution time of an application; we design and implement an execution-driven simulation platform that incorporates these methods for quantifying the overhead functions; and we use this simulator to study the scalability characteristics of five applications on shared memory platforms with different communication topologies.
AB - The overheads in a parallel system that limit its scalability need to be identified and separated in order to enable parallel algorithm design and the development of parallel machines. Such overheads may be broadly classified into two components. The first one is intrinsic to the algorithm and arises due to factors such as the work-imbalance and the serial fraction. The second one is due to the interaction between the algorithm and the architecture and arises due to latency and contention in the network. A top-down approach to scalability study of shared memory parallel systems is proposed in this research. We define the notion of overhead functions associated with the different algorithmic and architectural characteristics to quantify the scalability of parallel systems; we isolate the algorithmic overhead and the overheads due to network latency and contention from the overall execution time of an application; we design and implement an execution-driven simulation platform that incorporates these methods for quantifying the overhead functions; and we use this simulator to study the scalability characteristics of five applications on shared memory platforms with different communication topologies.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0028428301&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0028428301&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/183019.183038
DO - 10.1145/183019.183038
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:0028428301
SN - 089791659X
SN - 9780897916592
T3 - Performance Evaluation Review
SP - 171
EP - 180
BT - Performance Evaluation Review
PB - Publ by ACM
T2 - Proceedings of the 1994 ACM Sigmetrics on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems
Y2 - 16 May 1994 through 20 May 1994
ER -