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A demonstration of repeatable, non‐intrusive measurement of program performance and compiler optimization in Linux using IN‐Tune
Author(s) -
Cohen W. E.,
Gaede R. K.,
Rodgers J. B.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
software: practice and experience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1097-024X
pISSN - 0038-0644
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-024x(20000710)30:8<895::aid-spe319>3.0.co;2-4
Subject(s) - computer science , compiler , benchmark (surveying) , workload , linux kernel , program optimization , thread (computing) , operating system , suite , parallel computing , cache , embedded system , kernel (algebra) , mathematics , geodesy , archaeology , combinatorics , history , geography
Collecting accurate program metrics is often complicated by environmental artifacts such as operating system workload, cache operation, and processor configuration. This paper demonstrates the ability of the IN‐Tune system to make accurate and repeatable measurements of program metrics by analyzing the computational workload of programs in the SPEC95 benchmark suite. It shows that metrics which are characteristic of program performance can be collected in both lightly loaded and heavily loaded environments without corruption. The IN‐Tune system accomplishes this by creating unique ‘virtual performance registers’ for each process or kernel thread monitored on an Intel processor. Further, this paper investigates the effect optimization has on the performance of the benchmarks. The results clearly show improvements in the quality of code generated by the compiler when optimizations are performed and that, whereas measurements of time can be misleading, the IN‐Tune measurements are not. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.