Simulation as a tool for optimizing memory accesses on NUMA machines

Due to the inherent non-uniformity in the memory system, programmers and users of non-uniform memory access (NUMA) machines have to take special care of the memory performance of their applications. This paper discusses a variety of potential improvements with respect to cache misses, cache invalidations, and inter-node communication. This study is based on the simulation tool SIMT, which models the memory hierarchy in detail and is capable of providing complete, accurate information about all dynamic memory references. This information can be used to analyze the memory access behavior of applications and thereby forms the basis for any optimization with respect to memory accesses.