Software support for multiprocessor latency measurement and evaluation

Y. Yan, X. Zhang, and Q. Ma 

IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 23. No. 1, 1997, pp. 4-16. 
 
Abstract
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Parallel computing scalability evaluates 
the extent to which parallel programs and architectures can effectively 
utilize increasing numbers of processors. 
In this paper, we 
compare a group of existing scalability metrics and evaluation models with 
an experimental metric which 
uses network latency to measure and evaluate the 
scalability of parallel programs and architectures. 
To provide insight into dynamic system performance, 
we have developed an integrated 
software environment for measuring 
and evaluating multiprocessor scalability performance, 
called Scale-Graph. Scale-Graph 
uses a graphical instrumentation monitor to collect, measure and analyze 
latency-related data and to display scalability performance 
based on various program execution patterns. 
The graphical software tool is X-window based and 
currently implemented on standard workstations to analyze performance 
data of the KSR-1, a hierarchical ring-based shared-memory 
architecture.