Modelling “system independent” software resource demands

  • Authors:
  • Brian W. Unger

  • Affiliations:
  • -

  • Venue:
  • ANSS '75 Proceedings of the 3rd symposium on Simulation of computer systems
  • Year:
  • 1975

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Abstract

A new approach to modelling software demands for computing system resources is described. The resource demand model is applicable to programs written in high level, system independent, languages. A general simulation model capable of predicting the performance of significantly different systems processing the same workload can be based on this resource demand model. The selection of a computing system for a given application involves such performance comparisons for a class of workloads. The alternatives to a general simulation model for system selection are either rough estimates or the development of several different simulation models. The latter approach can be quite costly and the results may still be difficult to compare. A selection from systems, for example, with “segmented”, “paged” and “segmented and paged” memory allocation schemes requires a memory demand characterization which is independent of these schemes. The memory demand model described involves defining a dynamically varying “name space” and “locality” of references to that name space. This demand model can be independent of both a compilers partition of name space and how an operating system allocates memory to the partitioned name space. The class of systems considered include 3rd generation multiprocessor, multichannel, multiprogrammed systems with a hierarchy of memory levels increasing in size, and access times.