PICS: A performance-analysis-based introspective control system to steer parallel applications

Yanhua Sun, Jonathan Lifflander, Laxmikant V. Kalé

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Parallel programming has always been difficult due to the complexity of hardware and the diversity of applications. Although significant progress has been achieved with the remarkable efforts of researchers in academia and industry, attaining high parallel efficiency on large supercomputers with millions of cores for various applications remains challenging. Therefore, performance tuning has become even more important and challenging than ever before. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of PICS: Performance-analysis-based Introspective Control System, which is used to tune parallel programs. PICS provides a generic set of abstractions to the applications to expose the application-specific knowledge to the runtime system. The abstractions are called control points, which are tunable parameters affecting application performance. The application behaviors are observed, measured and automatically analyzed by the PICS. Based on the analysis results and expert knowledge rules, program characteristics are extracted to assist the search for optimal configurations of the control points. We have implemented the PICS control system in Charm++, an asynchronous message-driven parallel pro- gramming model. We demonstrate the utility of PICS with several benchmarks and a real-world application and show its effectiveness.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Runtime and Operating Systems for Supercomputers, ROSS 2014 - In Conjunction with ICS 2014
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Print)9781450329507
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Event4th International Workshop on Runtime and Operating Systems for Supercomputers, ROSS 2014 - In Conjunction with ICS 2014 - Munich, Germany
Duration: Jun 10 2014Jun 10 2014

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Runtime and Operating Systems for Supercomputers, ROSS 2014 - In Conjunction with ICS 2014

Other

Other4th International Workshop on Runtime and Operating Systems for Supercomputers, ROSS 2014 - In Conjunction with ICS 2014
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityMunich
Period6/10/146/10/14

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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