Comparing the performance of a prototype implementation of the APOSTLE discrete event simulation language for shared and distributed memory multiprocessors

摘要

A simulation-orented language can significantly enhance the usability of Parallel Discrete Euent Simulation (PDES) by hiding the complexities of the synchronization protocol used to ensure that events are processed in the correct order. In this paper we compare the performance of a prototype implementation of the APOSTLE object-oriented language for PDES on shared and distributed memory multiprocessors. APOSTLE's prototype implementation is based on an existing euent-oriented PDES framework which utilises the Breathing Time Buckets synchronization protocol. We report that, for 8 processors, the Sun SPARC seruer 1000 shared memory multiprocessor gaue parallel speed-ups of at best 2.5, whereas the Meiko CS-2 distributed memory multiprocessor gaue parallel speed-ups of at best 4.5. The relatiuely poor performance of the shared memory multiprocessor was due to the unexpectedly good performance of sequential APOSTLE and the poor scaling behauiour of the shared memory architecture.