Performance Engineering Technology for the Design, Management, and Control of Computing Systems

Abstract

This paper discusses a systematic new methodology for analyzing and predicting the performance of computing systems. The approaches considered address analysis of the computing system viewed in terms of an architectural framework consisting of the applications, the system software, and the underlying hardware. The methodology discussed enables analysis of the interdependent effects of these layers to the behavior of the system. To enable that, the layers and components of the system are described in multiple levels of detail and in multiple modes (analytical and simulation approaches as well as integrated performance measurements). Key approaches will be the ability to use these multilevel and multimodal methods of describing such systems and their subcomponents and incorporate them into performance frameworks in a plug-and-play fashion, to enable the capability to describe system behavior. In addition, it is envisioned that this technology will not only support the design of the complex systems but also be used in the runtime (control) and management cycles of these systems. These new methods will allow the design of individual components and also provide capabilities for system analysis and design, as well as provide a path from understanding component behavior to understanding system behavior and from understanding component behavior to predicting system behavior. The term performance engineering technology is used here to describe the technology that supports the capabilities discussed here.