Real-Time Parallel Software Design Case Study: Implementation of the RASSP SARBenchmark on the Intel Paragon

摘要

A software design process for mapping real time applications onto massivelyparallel processors is described. The design methodology incorporates a software test bench used to evaluate the level of real-time performance the processing nodes are capable of delivering. The test bench results incorporate the overheads of periodic processing (simple communication, control flow, buffering, etc.) and therefore provide realistic performance levels. The final integration step maintains the simple test bench interfaces and reduces the complexity of integrating the components to satisfy the timing requirements of the overall application. The process is applied to implement the RASSP SAR benchmark on an Intel Paragon. The initial implementation uses 12 Paragon GP nodes for a single polarization. Under oSF/1, this 12 node configuration satisfies all the real-time requirements. Under SUNMOS, a streamlined high performance operating system available on the Paragon, the throughput improves significantly with sustained processor utilization approaching 40%. A projected implementation of the RASSP SAR benchmark on the Embedded Touchstone suggests that all three polarizations can be processed (including I/O) using 14 out of its 16 MP nodes.