Computer Performance Measurement and Evaluation Methods: Analysis and Applications.

Abstract : This study concentrates on the measurement problem of a complex computer system. Several issues are attacked: system representation, evaluation and application of computer performance evaluation tools, power of a performance monitor, design of a performance monitor. For an external observer, performance of a computer system is the quality and the quantity of service delivered by the system. However, a computer system is a hierarchy of several levels, the lowest level being the circuit level, the highest the Software Support level. Performance of the system as a whole is determined by performance of individual levels. A conceptual model of an evaluated computer system, the P-model, is defined in this study using the principles of general systems theory; it provides a convenient uniform description for observing a computer system at any of these levels. The elements of the P-model are the level components; the output are performance measures relevant to the particular level and the purpose of evaluation.