A static parameter based performance prediction tool for parallel programs

  • Authors:
  • Thomas Fahringer;Hans P. Zima

  • Affiliations:
  • -;-

  • Venue:
  • ICS '93 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Supercomputing
  • Year:
  • 1993

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Abstract

This paper presents a Parameter based Performance Prediction Tool (PPPT) which is part of the Vienna Fortran Compilation System (VFCS), a compiler that automatically translates Fortran programs into message passing programs for massively parallel architectures.The PPPT is applied to an explicitly parallel program generated by the VFCS, which may contain synchronous as well as asynchronous communication and is attributed with parameters computed in a previous profiling run. It statically computes a set of optional parameters that characterize the behavior of the parallel program. This includes work distribution, the number of data transfers, the amount of data transferred, transfer times, network contention, and the number of cache misses. These parameters can be selectively determined for statements, loops, procedures, and the entire program; furthermore, their effect with respect to individual processors can be examined.The tool plays an important role in the VFCS by providing the system as well as the user with vital performance information about the program. In particular, it supports automatic data distribution generation and the intelligent selection of transformation strategies, based on properties of the algorithm and characteristics of the target architecture.The tool has been implemented. Experiments show a strong correlation between the statically computed parameters and actual measurements; furthermore it turns out that the predicted parameter values allow a realistic ranking of different program versions with respect to the actual runtime.