Summary: The Interaction of Parallel and Sequential Workloads on a
Network of Workstations
Remzi H. Arpaci, Andrea C. Dusseau, Amin M. Vahdat,
Lok T. Liu, Thomas E. Anderson, and David A. Patterson
Computer Science Division
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720
Abstract
This paper examines the plausibility of using a network of
workstations (NOW) for a mixture of parallel and sequential
jobs. Through simulations, our study examines issues that arise
when combining these two workloads on a single platform. Start­
ing from a dedicated NOW just for parallel programs, we in­
crementally relax uniprogramming restrictions until we have a
multi­programmed, multi­user NOW for both interactive sequen­
tial users and parallel programs. We show that a number of issues
associated with the distributed NOW environment (e.g., daemon
activity, coscheduling skew) can have a small but noticeable ef­
fect on parallel program performance. We also find that efficient
migration to idle workstations is necessary to maintain accept­

Source: Arpaci-Dusseau, Remzi - Department of Computer Sciences, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Newhall, Tia - Computer Science Department, Swarthmore College

Collections: Computer Technologies and Information Sciences