Experimentally based parallel architecture evaluation

A technique for architectural evaluation that has been used with good results and that is applicable to most experimental and commercial machines is proposed. This technique is that of careful experimentation on a bare system, i.e. one without a resident kernel, operating system, or high-level language support. The experimentation involves the implementation of simple algorithms designed to utilize the basic features of the architecture and exploit its unique features. This technique makes possible the analysis of an architecture without the complexities introduced by most operating systems and compilers and can yield insight beneficial in future language, compiler, operating system, application, and system design. Hybrid SIMD/MIMD architectures are considered as an example