Main Memory DBMS on Modern Processors, a Scalable Approach for Database Performance Characterization Using Simulation

摘要

In this paper, we present a simulation approach for database performance characterization, which can be scaled to target at a variety of platforms, ranging from uniprocessor desktops to multiprocessor servers. Specifically, we extend the Simics full-system simulator to measure performance of architectural features of a simulated Pentium 4 alike PC running TPC-H workload on MonetDB. Then, we compare our simulation results with some well-established results published in literature previously. Our contributions are: (ⅰ) a scalable and flexible simulation methodology to characterize database performance; (ⅱ) a close study of TPC-H benchmark performance including bandwidth measurement between memory and CPU, which has not been revealed in previously published research; and (ⅲ) validation of the simulation result against real machine measurement. We find that our simulation results are mostly consistent with previously published results. In our simulation, approximately 83% of query execution time in the database is spent on various stalls. Memory stalls and resource-related stalls are the most prominent ones for all TPC-H queries under test.