FAST: a functional algorithm simulation testbed

Abstract

In this paper we extend the practical range of simulations of parallel executions by what we call 'functional algorithm simulation,' that is, simulation without actually performing most of the numerical computations involved. We achieve this by introducing a new approach for generating and collecting communication and computation characteristics for a class of parallel scientific algorithms. We describe FAST (Fast Algorithm Simulation Testbed), a prototype system that we developed to implement and test our approach. FAST overcomes some of the difficulties imposed by the very high complexity of interesting scientific algorithms, collects profile information representative of the algorithms rather than the underlying mapping strategies and hardware-design choices, and allows a performance assessment of parallel machines with various sizes and different interconnection schemes.