Using communication-to-computation ratio in parallel program design and performance prediction

The authors goal is to be able to predict the performance of a parallel program early in the program development process; to that end they require prediction methods that can be based on incomplete programs. They describe how a single method based on communication-to-computation (C/C) ratio can be used to predict performance accurately and yet fairly simply in some commonly encountered cases. They show how C/C-ratio-based methods are accomplished for both distributed-memory and coherent-memory multiprocessors. They show that focusing on C/C ratio simplifies the use of theory, machine benchmarking and application measurement necessary to provide good parallel performance prediction. In addition, the methods demonstrated are useful because they can be applied to program fragments, or serially executed code.<<ETX>>

[1]  John W. Boyse,et al.  A Straightforward Model for Computer Performance Prediction , 1975, CSUR.

[2]  Ken Kennedy,et al.  A static performance estimator to guide data partitioning decisions , 1991, PPOPP '91.

[3]  Jarek Deminet.  Experience with Multiprocessor Algorithms , 1982, IEEE Transactions on Computers.

[4]  Mary K. Vernon,et al.  Diagnosing Parallel Program Speedup Limitations Using Resource Contention Models , 1990, ICPP.

[5]  Peter G. Harrison.  Analytic Models for Multistage Interconnection Networks , 1991, J. Parallel Distributed Comput..

[6]  Peter Møller-Nielsen,et al.  Problem-heap: A paradigm for multiprocesor algorithms , 1987, Parallel Comput..

[7]  Alfred V. Aho,et al.  Data Structures and Algorithms , 1983 .

[8]  Arif Ghafoor,et al.  PAWS: a performance evaluation tool for parallel computing systems , 1991, Computer.

[9]  Michel Dubois,et al.  The Run-Time Efficiency of Parallel Asynchronous Algorithms , 1991, IEEE Trans. Computers.

[10]  J. Chen,et al.  Performance measurements of scheduling strategies and parallel algorithms for a multiprocessor quick sort , 1984 .

[11]  John L. Hennessy,et al.  MTOOL: A Method for Isolating Memory Bottlenecks in Shared Memory Multiprocessor Programs , 1991, ICPP.

[12]  Eyal Zimran,et al.  Performance Efficient Mapping of Applications to Parallel and Distributed Architectures , 1990, ICPP.

[13]  Allen D. Malony,et al.  Performance Prediction for Parallel Numerical Algorithms , 1991, Int. J. High Speed Comput..

[14]  Jacques Cohen,et al.  Computer-assisted microanalysis of parallel programs , 1992, TOPL.

[15]  Dennis Gannon,et al.  Performance evaluation and prediction for parallel algorithms on the BBN GP1000 , 1990, ICS '90.