Mtool: an integrated system for performance debugging shared memory multiprocessor applications

Abstract

The authors describe Mtool, a software tool for analyzing performance losses in shared memory parallel programs. Mtool augments a program with low overhead instrumentation which perturbs the program's execution as little as possible while generating enough information to isolate memory and synchronization bottlenecks. After running the instrumented version of the parallel program, the programmer can use Mtool's window-based user interface to view compute time, memory, and synchronization objects. The authors describe Mtool's low overhead instrumentation methods, memory bottleneck detection technique, and attention focusing mechanisms, contrast Mtool with other approaches, and offer a case study to demonstrate its effectiveness.