Virtual-machine-based emulation of future generation high-performance computing systems

  • Authors:

  • Patrick G Bridges;Dorian Arnold;Kevin T Pedretti;Madhav Suresh;Feng Lu;Peter Dinda;Russ Joseph;Jack Lange

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Computer Science, University of New Mexico, USA;Department of Computer Science, University of New Mexico, USA;Scalable System Software Department, Sandia National Laboratories, USA;Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, USA;Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, USA;Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, USA;Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, USA;Department of Computer Science, University of Pittsburgh, USA

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications
  • Year:
  • 2012

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

This paper describes the design of a system to enable research, development, and testing of new software stacks and hardware features for future high-end computing systems. Motivating uses include both small-scale research and development on simulated individual nodes of proposed high-performance computing systems, and large scaling studies that emulate a sizeable fraction of a future supercomputing system. The proposed architecture combines system virtualization, architectural simulation, time dilation, and slack simulation to provide scalable emulation of hypothetical systems. Virtualization-based full-system measurement and monitoring tools are also included to aid in using the proposed system for co-design of high-performance computing system software and architectural features for future systems. Finally, this paper provides a description of the implementation strategy and status of the system.