ParPlum : a system for evaluating parallel program optimization methods
Jingsong Fu · 2000
The diversity of application programs and parallel architectures makes the mapping problem complicated and hard to evaluate. The quality of mapping is machine and application dependent and varies due to inaccurate values of application and architecture characteristics. A system for developing, applying and evaluating mappings must have four characteristics: (1) Simplicity: A mapping procedure can be evaluated by separately evaluating its submapping, so the complicated problem can be simplified. (2) Generality: A wide range of application programs and architectures can be easily represented and all mapping algorithms can be easily implemented. (3) Multifunctionality: all the mapping steps, application programs, target architectures, and related cost functions can vary and are easy to evaluate. (4) Ability for the sensitivity analysis: The sensitivity of mapping quality to the inaccuracy of cost functions and characteristics of applications and architectures can be easily tested. ParPlum, which is presented in this thesis, is aimed at creating and evaluating mappings on different parallel architectures with different application programs. Sensitivity analysis is another major focus. The design philosophy of ParPlum is to narrow down the multidimensional optimization problem into sub-problems with one or fewer dimensions. Mapping, for example, can be divided into three submappings, partitioning, allocating, and scheduling. This leads to the implementation of the ParPlum system, the use of data flow style, the distribution of ParPlum libraries, and the development of the ParPlum pipeline.