A study of processing repetition
J. R. Haley · The Computer Journal · 1979
The phenomenon of repetition in the workload of a computer system is investigated from the point of view of its implications for systems design. Measurements taken from a CDC ***6000 Series interactive systems are presented. The first results show the distribution of repetitions of command executions (or program runs) over the classes of programs within the system. Then, a resource demand sequence is defined as the detailed pattern of hardware resources required by a program in execution. A technique for measuring the repetition of resource demand sequences is demonstrated, and the resulting measurements of this form of repetition are presented. The results show that the amount of repetition, though considerable, is insufficient to support the development of predictive schedulers. But they also indicate that a new approach to compilation – the use of an incremental recompiler – may effectively increase the productivity of an interactive computer system.