Parallel Performance Project Research Paper

Research Paper

Tools for Characterizing Distributed Shared Memory Applications
Gheith Abandah
Technical Report HPL-96-157, HP Laboratories, Dec 1996.

Abstract

In order to support the design of future distributed shared memory (DSM) systems, we have developed a set of tools for characterizing DSM applications. These tools enable collecting and analyzing data, instruction, and I/O stream traces of DSM applications. They give characterization for several aspects of DSM applications including communication and sharing patterns. They also enable evaluating the performance of these applications on various DSM design alternatives. This report describes the implementation of these tools, their usage, and the format of their output files.