POET: A tool for the analysis of the performance of parallel algorithms

The tool consists of a simple language for describing algorithms and an interpreter that determines the execution time on a given number of processors. The key concept is the separate specification of local computation and remote memory access in the algorithm description. This allows the interpreter to simulate the communications of the target parallel machine. An accurate simulation of the memory access delays, coupled with the specified amount of local computation, results in the predicted parallel execution time. Operation of the system has been validated by comparing predicted versus observed execution times for numerical algorithms on the Butterfly and Butterfly Plus parallel processors.

Duke Scholars

Author Charles Franklin Starmer Computer Science