CITR TECHNICAL JOURNAL—VOLUME 2 87 THE DESIGN AND APPLICATION OF PARSIM—A MESSAGE PASSING.pdfVIP

I ECHNICAL OURNAL OLUME C TR T J —V 2 87 THE DESIGN AND APPLICATION OF PARSIM—A MESSAGE PASSING COMPUTER SIMULATOR ANTHONY SYMONS AND V. LAKSHMI NARASIMHAN 1 Abstract— Currently many interconnection networks and parallel algorithms exist for message passing computers. Users of these machines wish to determine which message passing computer is best for a given job, and how it will scale with the number of processors and algorithm size. This paper describes a general purpose simulator for message passing multiprocessors (Parsim), which facilitates system modelling. A structured method for simulator design has been used which gives Parsim the ability to easily simulate different topologies and algorithm combinations. This is illustrated by applying Parsim to a number of algorithms on a variety of topologies. Parsim is then used to predict the performance of the new IBM SP2 parallel computer, with topologies ranging up to 1024 processors. Keywords—Parallel Distributed Computing, Simulation, Hypercube, IBM SP2, Transport Optimisation, Transputer Mesh, Performance Parameters. Source of Publication—IEE Proceedings: Digital Technology, Vol. 144, No. 1, January 1997. 1 INTRODUCTION Recently we have seen the introduction of a number of large message passing computers, with the new IBM SP2 being able to scale to hundreds of processors. Examples of other message passing parallel computers are Transputer Hypercube [8], Transputer mesh and cluster of workstations connected via an ethernet. One