Cluster systems and simulation: from benchmarking to off‐line performance prediction
Beniamino Di Martino, Emilio Pasquale Mancini, Massimiliano Rak, Roberto Torella, Umberto Villano · Concurrency and Computation Practice and Experience · 2006
Abstract This paper describes a simulation‐based technique for the performance prediction of message‐passing applications on cluster systems by means of benchmark data. Given data measuring the performance of a target cluster in the form of standard benchmark results, along with the details of the chosen computing configuration, it is possible to build and to validate automatically a detailed simulation model. This makes it possible to predict off‐line, i.e. without resorting to the real hardware, the performance of fully developed or even of skeletal code. An XML‐based language (MetaPL) is adopted to describe the application behavior in the development stage. After a description of the approach and the illustration of the construction and validation of the simulation model, the paper presents a case study. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.