Prototype-Oriented Development of High-performance Systems

In this paper, we discuss the problem of developing performance-oriented software and the need for methodologies. We then present the EDPEPPS (Environment for Design and Performance Evaluation of Portable Parallel Software) approach to the problem of designing and evaluating high-performance (parallel) applications. The EDPEPPS toolset is based on a rapid prototyping philosophy, where the designer synthesises a model of the intended software which may be simulated, and the performance is subsequently analysed using visualisation. The toolset combines a graphical design tool, a simulation facility, and a visualisation tool. The same design is used to produce a code suitable for simulation and real execution. 1 Introduction Many existing software engineering techniques which assist in the management of the complexity of serial programs can be directly applied to the development of parallel software. Many of the assumptions about serial programs, however, do not hold for parallel programs..