Recording the control flow of parallel applications to determine iterative and phase-based behavior

Many applications exhibit iterative and phase-based behavior. We present an approach to detect and analyze iteration phases in applications by recording the execution control flow graph of the application and analyzing it for loops that represent iterations. Phases are then manually marked and performance profiles are captured in alignment with the iterations. By analyzing how profiles change between capture points the differences in execution behavior between iterations can be highlighted. Published by Elsevier B.V.