Abstract
The Bulk Synchronous Parallel (BSP) model provides a theoretical framework to accurately predict the execution time of parallel programs. In this paper we describe a BSP programming library that has been developed and contrast two approaches to analysing performance: (1) a pencil and paper method; (2) a profiling tool that analyses trace information generated during program execution. These approaches are evaluated on an industrial application code that solves fluid dynamics equations around a complex aircraft geometry on IBM SP2 and SGI Power Challenge machines. We show how the profiling tool can be used to explore the communication patterns of the CFD code and accurately predict the performance of the application on any parallel machine.
Chapter PDF
References
D. Burgess, P. Crumpton, and M. Giles. A parallel framework for unstructured grid solvers. In Computational Fluid Dynamics ECCOMAS'94, pages 391–396. John Wiley & Sons, 1994.
P. Crumpton and M. Giles. Implicit time accurate solutions on unstructured dynamic grids. AIAA Paper 95–1671, 1995.
M. W. Goudreau, J. M. D. Hill, K. Lang, B. McColl, S. B. Rao, D. C. Stefanescu, T. Suel, and T. Tsantilas. A proposal for the BSP Worldwide standard library, April 1996. See www.bsp-worldwide.org for more details.
M. W. Goudreau, K. Lang, S. B. Rao, T. Suel, and T. Tsantilas. Towards efficiency and portability: Programming with the BSP model. In Proc. 8th Annual ACM Symposium on Parallel Algorithms and Architectures, 1996.
R. W. Hockney. Performance parameters and benchmarking of supercomputers. Parallel Computing, 17:1111–1130, 1991.
W. F. McColl. Scalable computing. In J. van Leeuwen, editor, Computer Science Today: Recent Trends and Developments, number 1000 in Lecture notes in Computer Science, pages 46–61. Springer-Verlag, 1995.
R. Miller. Two approaches to architecture-independent parallel computation. D.Phil thesis, Oxford University, Michaelmas Term 1994.
L. G. Valiant. A bridging model for parallel computation. Communications of the ACM, 33(8):103–111, August 1990.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Hill, J.M.D., Crumpton, P.I., Burgess, D.A. (1996). Theory, practice, and a tool for BSP performance prediction. In: Bougé, L., Fraigniaud, P., Mignotte, A., Robert, Y. (eds) Euro-Par'96 Parallel Processing. Euro-Par 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1124. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0024766
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0024766
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-61627-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-70636-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive