The Dynamic Load Balancing of Clustered Time Warp for Logic Simulation
McGill Cniversit · 1996
We present, in this paper, a dynamic load balancing algorithm developed for Clustered Time Warp, a hybrid appmach which makes iisc! of Time Warp het.ween cliisters of LPs and a wqiieiitial mechanism within the clusters. The load balancing algorit.hm fociisw on distributing the load of the simidation evenly among the procestton and then tries to reduce interprocesmr commiinication.. . We make use of a t.riggering technique based on the throiighpiit of the simiilation system. The algorithm was implemented and its performance was measiired tisin two of the largest benchmark digital circuits of the 18CAS’89 series. In order to memiire the effects of the algorithm on workload distribution, inter-processor conimiinicat.ion and rollback, we defined three distinct metrics. bsidts show that by dynamically balancing the load, the throughput was improved by 40 to 100% when compared to Time Warp. Throughput. is t.he number of non mllf.nl-bact message events per unit time. When the algorithm tried to reduce inter-processor commiinication, rollback. were siihstantially rediiced. Severt.hdess, no srihstantial improvement was ohserved on the overall simiilation time, siig esting that load distribution is the most important &tor to he taken into consideration in speeding iip the simidihon of digital circuits.