SYNTHETIC-PERTURBATION TUNING OF MIMD PROGRAMS

Synthetic-perturbation tuning (SPT) is a novel technique for assaying and improving the performance of programs on MIMD systems. Conceptually, SPT brings the powerful, mathematical perspective of statisticlly designed experiments to the interdependent, sometimes refractory aspects of MIMD program tuning. Practically, synthetic perturbations provide a much needed quick-change mechanism for what otherwise would be ad hoc, hand-configured experiment setups. Overall, the technique identifies bottlenecks in programs directly as quantitative effects upon a measured response. SPT works on programs for both shared and distributed memory and it scales well with increasing system size.