CS594 Spring 2002
Performance Measurement with PAPI
Homework Assignment
Due Wednesday, May 1

One of the strengths of PAPI is its ability to gather similar performance data on multiple computing platforms. Thus, it is crucial to port PAPI to new platforms as soon as possible after they become available. This makes PAPI’s metrics available to the researcher to measure the performance of new systems.

You and your classmates are part of a team that has been charged with porting PAPI to IBM’s new POWER4 architecture. Because this is a new architecture, the documentation is limited and often difficult to locate. So far, the only information you have found is at cs.utk.edu/~terpstra/power4, but other relevant information may be available on the PAPI website or elsewhere on the web.

An important step in porting PAPI to a new architecture is the creation of a preset map that maps PAPI events to native events on a specific platform. Creating such a map requires an understanding of the PAPI standard events and an understanding of the events that can be measured on the target system. Your assignment is to create, either alone or with your other team members (classmates),

a preset map for the IBM POWER4, and deliver a copy of that effort to your supervisor (me) by the specified deadline.

Keep in mind that there is no single right answer. Not every standard event can be supported on every platform. Negative results are still results. Some events can be supported in multiple ways. The process is as important as the goal. Justify your choices if they are ambiguous. It’s up to you and your team members to figure out how to work effectively together to reach a single solution. Good luck.

dan terpstra
<terpstra@cs.utk.edu>