Analyitical Study of HPCC Performance using HPL

Performance study of a High Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC) is a complex and multi dimensional activity involving analysis and evaluation of several processes and parameters. Theoretical estimation of peak performance is generally done using simple calculations involving processor clock speed, FLOP rating of processor and number of processors & cores. This estimation typically provides a quantitative number, which is within acceptable limits of variation as against actual numbers. There are many factors which affect the actual performance of a HPCC. In this paper we are presenting results of certain computational experiments carried out on a medium size HPCC. The cluster used for carrying out the experiment is built using six identical server machines interconnected using 1 Gbps Ethernet network switch. To study the performance standard HighPerformance Linpack (HPL) Benchmark has been used with certain variation in number of cores and complexity of task. Intel-optimized version of HPL has been used for carrying out the experiments. Obtained results have been analyzed to understand the behavior of HPC for varying complexity of task. Variation in complexity of task and changing number of processing cores for a particular level of complexity have been studied and presented. Keywords—HPCC, HPL, Peak Performance, Cluster