Title :
Sampled simulation of multi-threaded applications
Author :
Carlson, Trevor E. ; Heirman, W. ; Eeckhout, Lieven
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electron. & Inf. Syst., Ghent Univ., Ghent, Belgium
Abstract :
Sampling is a well-known workload reduction technique that allows one to speed up architectural simulation while accurately predicting performance. Previous sampling methods have been shown to accurately predict single-threaded application runtime based on its overall IPC. However, these previous approaches are unsuitable for general multi-threaded applications, for which IPC is not a good proxy for runtime. Additionally, we find that issues such as application periodicity and inter-thread synchronization play a significant role in determining how best to sample these applications. The proposed multi-threaded application sampling methodology is able to derive an effective sampling strategy for candidate applications using architecture-independent metrics. Using this methodology, large input sets can now be simulated which would otherwise be infeasible, allowing for more accurate conclusions to be made than from studies using scaled-down input sets. Through the use of the proposed methodology, we can simulate less than 10% of the total application runtime in detail. On the SPEComp, NPB and PARSEC benchmarks, running on an 8-core simulated system, we achieve an average absolute error of 3.5%.
Keywords :
digital simulation; multi-threading; software architecture; software metrics; software performance evaluation; 8-core simulated system; NPB benchmark; PARSEC benchmark; SPEComp benchmark; application periodicity; architectural simulation; architecture-independent metrics; interthread synchronization; multithreaded application sampling methodology; performance prediction; sampled simulation; sampling strategy; scaled-down input sets; workload reduction technique; Accuracy; Benchmark testing; Instruction sets; Predictive models; Runtime; Synchronization; Vectors;
Conference_Titel :
Performance Analysis of Systems and Software (ISPASS), 2013 IEEE International Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Austin, TX
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-5776-0
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4673-5778-4
DOI :
10.1109/ISPASS.2013.6557141