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Modeling cost/performance of a parallel computer simulator

Modeling cost/performance of a parallel computer simulator Modeling Cost/Performance of a Parallel Computer Simulator BABAK FALSAFI and DAVID A. WOOD University of Wisconsin, Madison This article examines the cost/performance of simulating a hypothetical target parallel computer using a commercial host parallel computer. We address the question of whether parallel simulation is simply faster than sequential simulation, or if it is also more costeffective. To answer this, we develop a performance model of the Wisconsin Wind Tunnel (WWT), a system that simulates cache-coherent shared-memory machines on a messagepassing Thinking Machines CM-5. The performance model uses Kruskal and Weiss ™s fork-join model to account for the effect of event processing time variability on WWT ™s conservative fixed-window simulation algorithm. A generalization of Thiebaut and Stone ™s footprint model accurately predicts the effect of cache interference on the CM-5. The model is calibrated using parameters extracted from a fully parallel simulation ( p N), and validated by measuring the speedup as the number of processors ( p) ranges from 1 to the number of target nodes (N). Together with simple cost models, the performance model indicates that for target system sizes of 32 nodes and larger, parallel simulation is more cost-effective than sequential simulation. The key intuition behind http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation (TOMACS) Association for Computing Machinery

Modeling cost/performance of a parallel computer simulator

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Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by ACM Inc.
ISSN
1049-3301
DOI
10.1145/244804.244808
Publisher site
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Abstract

Modeling Cost/Performance of a Parallel Computer Simulator BABAK FALSAFI and DAVID A. WOOD University of Wisconsin, Madison This article examines the cost/performance of simulating a hypothetical target parallel computer using a commercial host parallel computer. We address the question of whether parallel simulation is simply faster than sequential simulation, or if it is also more costeffective. To answer this, we develop a performance model of the Wisconsin Wind Tunnel (WWT), a system that simulates cache-coherent shared-memory machines on a messagepassing Thinking Machines CM-5. The performance model uses Kruskal and Weiss ™s fork-join model to account for the effect of event processing time variability on WWT ™s conservative fixed-window simulation algorithm. A generalization of Thiebaut and Stone ™s footprint model accurately predicts the effect of cache interference on the CM-5. The model is calibrated using parameters extracted from a fully parallel simulation ( p N), and validated by measuring the speedup as the number of processors ( p) ranges from 1 to the number of target nodes (N). Together with simple cost models, the performance model indicates that for target system sizes of 32 nodes and larger, parallel simulation is more cost-effective than sequential simulation. The key intuition behind

Journal

ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation (TOMACS) – Association for Computing Machinery

Published: Jan 1, 1997

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