Title:
An Approach to Scalability Study of Shared Memory Parallel Systems
An Approach to Scalability Study of Shared Memory Parallel Systems
Authors
Sivasubramaniam, Anand
Singla, Aman
Ramachandran, Umakishore
Venkateswaran, H.
Singla, Aman
Ramachandran, Umakishore
Venkateswaran, H.
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Abstract
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 develop a method for
separating the algorithmic overhead into a serial component and a
work-imbalance component; we also develop a method for isolating 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.
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Date Issued
1993
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219643 bytes
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Text
Resource Subtype
Technical Report