TECHNICAL ARTICLE An Integrated Simulation Environment for Parallel and Distributed System Prototying

The process of designing parallel and distributed computer systems requires predicting performance in response to given workloads. The scope and inter-action of applications, operating systems, communi-cation networks, processors, and other hardware and software lead to substantial system complexity. De-velopment of virtual prototypes in lieu of physical prototypes can result in tremendous savings, espe-cially when created in concert with a powerful model development tool. When high-fidelity models of par-allel architectures are coupled with workloads gener-ated from real parallel application code in an execu-tion-driven simulation, the result is a potent design and analysis tool for parallel hardware and software alike. This paper introduces the concepts, mechanisms, and results of an Integrated Simulation Environment (ISE) that makes possible the rapid virtual prototyping and profiling of legacy and prototype parallel process-ing algorithms, architectures, and systems using a networked cluster of workstations. Performance re-sults of virtual prototypes in ISE are shown to faith-fully represent those of an equivalent hardware con-figuration, and the benefits of ISE for predicted per-formance comparisons are illustrated by a case study