Variant-based competitive parallel execution of sequential programs

Competitive parallel execution (CPE) is a simple yet attractive technique to improve the performance of sequential programs on multi-core and multi-processor systems. A sequential program is transformed into a CPE-enabled program by introducing multiple variants for parts of the program. The performance of different variants depends on runtime conditions, such as program input or the execution platform, and the execution time of a CPE-enabled program is the sum of the shortest variants. Variants compete at run-time under the control of a CPEaware run-time system. The run-time system ensures that the behavior and outcome of a CPE-enabled program is not distinguishable from the one of its original sequential counterpart. We present and evaluate a run-time system that is implemented as a user-space library and that closely interacts with the operating system. The paper discusses two strategies for the generation of variants and investigates the applicability of CPE for two usage scenari...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: CF
• Authors: Oliver Trachsel, Thomas R. Gross
• Keywords: CF 2010, Cpe-enabled Programs, Run-time System, Sequential Program