Shared-memory performance profiling

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a new approach to finding performance bottlenecks in shared-memory parallel programs and its embodiment in the Paradyn Parallel Performance Tools running with the Blizzard fine-grain distributed shared memory system. This approach exploits the underlying system's cache coherence protocol to detect data sharing patterns that indicate potential performance bottlenecks and presents performance measurements in a data-centric manner. As a demonstration, Parodyn helped us improve the performance of a new shared-memory application program by a factor of four.

References

1. 1.J.B. Carter, J. K. Bennett, and W. Zwaenepoel. Implementation and Performance of Munin. 13th ACM Syrup. on Operating Systems Principles, Oct. 1991.
2. 2.S. Chandra, B. Richards and J. R. tams. Teapot: Language Support for Writing Memory Coherence Protocols. SIGPLAN Conf. on Programming Languages Design and Implementation (PLDI), Philadelphia, PA, May 1996.
3. 3.S. Chandra and J. R. Larus. Optimizing Communication in HPF Programs for Fine-Grain Distributed Memory. 6th A CM SIGPLAN Syrup. on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming. Alexis Park Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada, June 18-21, 1997.
4. 4.T.M. Chilimbi, T. Ball, S. G. Eric, J. R. Larus. StormWatch: A Tool for Visualizing Memory System Protocols. Supercomputing'95, San Diego, CA, December, 1995.
5. 5.A.L. Cox and R. J. Fowler. Adaptive Cache coherency for Detecting Migratory Shared Data. 20th Annual lnt'l Syrup. on Computer Architecture, May 1993.
6. 6.F. Dahlgren, M. Dubois, and P. Stenstrom. Combined Performance Gains of Simple Cache Protocol Extensions. 21th Annual Int'l Syrup. on Computer Architecture, April 1994.
7. 7.B. Falsafi, A. R. Lebeck, S. K. Reinhardt, I. Schoinas, M. D. Hill, J. R. Larus, A. Rogers, and D. A. Wood. Application- Specific Protocols for user-level Shared Memory. Supercomputing'94, November, 1994.
8. 8.A. Gupta, M. Martonosi, and T. Anderson. MemSpy: Analyzing memory system bottlenecks in programs. Performance Evaluation Review 20, 1, June 1992.
9. 9.M.D. Hill, J.R. Larus, S.K. Reinhardt, and D.A. Wood. Tempest: A Substrate for Portable Parallel Programs. COMPCON'95, San Francisco, March 1995.
10. 10.J.K. Hollingsworth and B.P. Miller, "Dynamic Control of Performance Monitoring on Large Scale Parallel Systems", int'l Conf. on Supercomputing, Tokyo, July 1993.
11. 11.J.K. Hollingsworth, B. P. Miller, M. J. R. Gon#alves, O. Naim. Z. Xu and L. Zheng. MDL: A Language and Compiler for Dynamic Program Instrumentation. Tech.l Report, Comp. Science Department, LrW-Madison.
12. 12.M. Horowitz, M. Martonosi, T. C. Mowry, and M. D. Smith. Informing Memory Operations: Providing Memory Performance Feedback in Modern Processors. 23rd Annual Int'l Syrup. on Comp. Architecture, Philadelphia PA, May 1996.
13. 13.G.A. Huber and S. Kim. Weighted-Ensemble Brownain Dynamics Simulations for Protein Association Reactions. Biophysical Journal, Vol. 70, January 1996.
14. 14.R.B. Irvin and B.P. Miller, "A Performance Tool for High- Level Parallel Programming Languages" in Progranuning Environments for Massively Parallel Distributed Systems, Birkaeuser Verlag, Basel, K.M. Decker and R.M. Rehmann, eds., 1994.
15. 15.R.B. Irvin and B.P. Miller, "Mapping Performance Data for High-Level and Data Views of Parallel Program Performance", lnt'l Conf. on Supercomputing, Philadelphia, May 1996.
16. 16.K.J. Johnson, M. F. Kaashoek, and D. A. Wallach. CRL: High Performance All-Software Distributed Shared Memory. 15th A CM Syrup. on Operating System Principles (SOSP), Copper Mountain, Colorado, December 1995.
17. 17.P. Keleher, S. Dwarkadas, A. Cox, and W. Zwaenepoel. TreadMarks: Distributed Shared Memory on Standard Workstations and Operating Systems. IEEE Computer 29, 2, February 1996.
18. 18.J. Kuskin et al. The Stanford FLASH Multiprocessor. 21st Annual Int'l Syrup. on Comp. Architecture, April 1994.
19. 19.A.R. Lebeck and D. A. Wood. Cache profiling and spec benchmarks: A case study. IEEE Computer 27, 10, October 1994.
20. 20.T. Lover and R. Clapp. STING: A CC-NUMA Computer System for the Commercial Marketplace. 23th Annual Int'l Symp. on Comp. Architecture, Philadelphia PA, May 1996.
21. 21.M. Martonosi, D. Ofelt and M. Heinrich. Integrating Performance Monitoring and Communication in Parallel Computers. A CM Sigmetrics Conf. on Measurement & Modeling of Comp. Systems, Philadelphia, PA, May, 1996.
22. 22.B.P. Miller, M. D. Callaghan, J. M. Cargille, J. K. Hollingsworth, R. B. Irvin, K. L. Karavanic, K. Kunchithapadarn, and Tia NewhaU. The Paradyn Performance Tools. IEEE Computer 28, 11, November 1995.
23. 23.S.K. Reinhardt, J. R. Larus, D. A. Wood. Typhoon and Tempest: User-Level Shared Memory. 21st Int'l Syrup. on Comp. Architecture, April 1994.
24. 24.D.J. Scales, K. Gharachorloo, and C. A. Thekkath. Shasta: A Low Overhead, Software-Only Approach for Supporting Fine- Grain Shared Memory. 8th lnt'l Conf. on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Sys. (ASPLOS), 1996.
25. 25.I. Schoinas, B. Falsafi, A. R. Lebeck, S. K. Reinhardt, J. R. Larus, D. A. Wood. Fine-grained Access Control for Distributed Shared Memory. In Pr 6th lnt'l Conf. on Architectural Support for Prog. Languages and Operating Sys. (ASPLOS), Oct. 1994.
26. 26.P. Stenstrom, M. Brorsson, and L. Sandberg. An Adaptive Cache Coherence Protocol for Optimized Migratory Sharing. 20th Annual Int'l Syrup. on Comp. Architecture, May 1993.
27. 27.Sun Mieroelectronics. UItraSPARC User's Manual. 1996.
28. 28.Y. Zhou, L. Iftode, K. Li, J. P. Singh, B. R. Toonen, I. Shoinas, M.D. Hill and D. A. Wood. Relaxed Consistency and Coherence Granularity in DSM Systems: A Performance Evaluation. 6th A CM SIGPLAN Syrup. on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming. Las Vegas, June 1997.

Index Terms

• Computing methodologies

  • Concurrent computing methodologies

    • Concurrent programming languages

• Hardware

  • Integrated circuits

    • Semiconductor memory

      • Dynamic memory

• Mathematics of computing

  • Mathematical software

• Software and its engineering

  • Software notations and tools

    • General programming languages

      • Language types

        • Concurrent programming languages

• Theory of computation

  • Models of computation

    • Concurrency

      • Parallel computing models