Timestamp consistency and trace-driven analysis for distributed parallel systems

Abstract

A continuous stream of event data describing the progress of parallel program execution is required for trace-driven analysis. Unfortunately, it is often the case that separate streams are produced independently by multiple processors in the system, and the logical order of events cannot be guaranteed due to discrepancy among local clocks. In this paper, we present an integrated approach for timestamp consistency and performance analysis techniques for IBM SPn systems. The trace facility requires no source code modification, and can generate message passing and system events with minimal trace overhead. Trace-driven analysis tools are developed to extract useful information. Analysis results for NAS kernel benchmarks are reported.