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Title: Input/output speed-up in tightly-coupled multiprocessors

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:7249673

Previous models of program speed-up on parallel architectures tend to ignore I/O activity and other important issues. In this paper we derive analytic speed-up models including I/O activities. We show that ignoring I/O yields conservative speed-up results. We explore the effectiveness of using hardware format conversion units in multiprocessors. We prove that hardware parallel format conversion loses its edge over software parallel format conversion if the ratio of the number of processors to I/O bandwidth increases. For a given number of processors, program speed-up is more sensitive to the available I/O bandwidth rather than the format conversion speed. Ninety-one Fortran programs are used in various experiments to verify our models and conclusions. 35 refs., 5 figs., 8 tabs.

Research Organization:
Illinois Univ., Urbana (USA). Center for Supercomputing Research and Development
DOE Contract Number:
FG02-85ER25001
OSTI ID:
7249673
Report Number(s):
DOE/ER/25001-28; ON: DE87002106
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English