Compensation of Measurement Overhead in Parallel Performance Profiling

Abstract. Performance profiling generates measurement overhead during parallel program execution. Measurement overhead, in turn, introduces intrusion in a program’s runtime performance behavior. Intrusion can be mitigated by controlling instrumentation degree, allowing a tradeoff of accuracy for detail. Alternatively, the accuracy in profile results can be improved by reducing the intrusion error due to measurement overhead. Models for compensation of measurement overhead in parallel performance profiling are described. An approach based on rational reconstruction is used to understand properties of compensation solutions for different parallel scenarios. From this analysis, a general algorithm for on-the-fly overhead assessment and compensation is derived.