Performance study of a cluster runtime system for dynamic interactive stream-oriented applications

A. Paul, N. Harel, S. Adhikari, B. Agarwalla, U. Ramachandran, K. Mackenzie

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Emerging application domains such as interactive vision, animation, and multimedia collaboration need specialized runtime systems that provide support mechanisms to enable plumbing, cross module data transfer, buffer management, synchronization and so on. Using Stampede, a cluster programming system that is designed to meet the requirements of such applications, we quantify the performance of such mechanisms. We have developed a timing infrastructure that helps tease out the time spent by an application in different layers of software, viz., the main algorithmic component, the support mechanisms, and the raw messaging. Several interesting insights have surfaced from this study. First, memory allocation does not take up a significant amount of the execution time despite the interactive and dynamic nature of the application domain. Second, the Stampede runtime adds a minimal overhead over raw messaging for structuring such applications. Third, the results suggest that the thread scheduler on Linux may be more responsive than the one on Solaris. Fourth, the messaging layer spends quite a bit of time in synchronization operations. Perhaps the most interesting result of this study is that general-purpose operating systems such as Linux and Solaris are quite adequate to meet the requirements of emerging dynamic interactive stream-oriented applications.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2003 IEEE International Symposium on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software, ISPASS 2003
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages133-142
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)0780377567, 9780780377561
DOIs
StatePublished - 2003
Event2003 IEEE International Symposium on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software, ISPASS 2003 - Austin, United States
Duration: 6 Mar 20038 Mar 2003

Publication series

Name2003 IEEE International Symposium on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software, ISPASS 2003

Conference

Conference2003 IEEE International Symposium on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software, ISPASS 2003
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAustin
Period6/03/038/03/03

Keywords

  • Animation
  • Application software
  • Clustering algorithms
  • Collaboration
  • Linux
  • Multimedia systems
  • Runtime
  • Software algorithms
  • Streaming media
  • Timing

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