Handling OS jitter on multicore multithreaded systems

Various studies have shown that OS jitter can degrade parallel program performance considerably at large processor counts. Most sources of system jitter fall broadly into 5 categories - user space processes, kernel threads, interrupts, SMT interference and hypervisor activity. Solutions to OS jitter typically consist of a combination of techniques such as synchronization of jitter across nodes (co-scheduling or gang scheduling) and use of microkernels. Both techniques present several drawbacks. Multicore and Multithreaded systems present opportunities to handle OS jitter. They have multiple cores and threads, some of which can be used for handling OS jitter, while the application threads run on remaining cores and threads. However, they are also prone to risks such as inter-thread cache interference and process migration. In this paper, we present a holistic approach that aims to reduce jitter caused by various sources of jitter by utilizing the additional threads or cores in a system...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: IPPS
• Authors: Pradipta De, Vijay Mann, Umang Mittaly
• Keywords: Distributed And Parallel Computing, IPPS 2009, Jitter, Jitter Fall, OS Jitter