The purpose of this Research Planning Grant is to perform preliminary research and to develop a full proposal which will be submitted to NSF in the fall of 1995. The primary objective of the research is a measurement and modeling study of parallel computer systems. The platforms to be used include the Kendall Square KSR1 and the Intel Paragon multiprocessor systems located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and a network of Sun Solaris 2.3 workstations located at Fisk University, an HBCU/MI. The method of evaluation is to measure and evaluate various system design alternatives using alternative queueing network models of parallel computer systems. Queueing network models are chosen because, unlike other methods such as Markov models and Petri net models, queueing network models do not require the enumeration of all possible states that the system may enter, but rather, use computationally efficient techniques to determine mean performance metrics of the system. The use of parallel and distributed computer and communications systems is becoming commonplace. However, the computer systems which are the focus of this research have characteristics which are difficult to measure and model. The systems may have forking and joining in the task graph, variations in the multiprogramming level and use various synchronization techniques. System issues such as thread scheduling and placement are difficult to model accurately. Thus, the development and application of computationally efficient techniques for evaluating the performance of these types of systems is an important and significant area of research. The project includes a component for undergraduate research experiences at Fisk University. Given appropriate guidance, undergraduate have the opportunity to alter parameters, run experiments, and participate in the measuring and modeling process.
