Recommended instrumentation approaches for a shared-memory multiprocessor
George Nacht, Alan Mink · 1987
Two approaches for the design of performance measurement instru- mentation for a shared memory, tightly coupled, MIMD multiprocessor are presented.The TRAce Measurement System (TRAMS) is a hybrid measurement tool used to obtain trace measurement information.The Resource Measurement System (REMS) is a non-mtrusive hardware measurement tool used to obtain both trace measurement and resource utilization information.The TRAMS approach provides a hardware as- sist to the more traditional software approach of obtaining timestamps from the operating system at each event to be measured.This hardware assist reduces the artifact that is introduced in a test program and is a feasible and economical approach to providing measurement capabilities to a wide range of multiprocessors.Manufacturers could offer this type of measurement tool as a plug-in option.The REMS approach provides more detailed and extensive measurement information than does the TRAMS approach and introduces no artifact to the test program, but it does this at a significantly higher cost.When access to pertinent signals is restricted the applicability of such a hardware tool is limited.